A security guard in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan in Islamabad on September 21, 2023. Photo: AFP
The Election Commission of Pakistan has refused to recognize lawyer Gohar Ali Khan as president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in response to Gohar’s earlier published letter, stated that on November 13 it had requested recognition of the membership of independent senators in the PTI.
The commission said PTI’s intra-party election case is still pending and the party has obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court (LHC). According to the ECP, he cannot be recognized as PTI president and has no legal authority in this regard.
On January 13, 2024, a three-member SC bench upheld the ECP order of December 22, 2023 declaring PTI’s intra-party polls null and void.
Subsequently, PTI candidates had to contest the February 8, 2024 general elections as independents.
Read: ‘ECP justified in case of 41 candidates’
Eighty of these independent candidates reached the National Assembly and later joined the SIC in an apparent attempt to claim seats reserved for women and minorities. The ECP, however, refused to allocate the seats to the party, a decision which the SIC challenged before the Supreme Court.
On July 12, 2024, a full bench of the apex court, by a majority of eight to five, resurrected the PTI as a parliamentary party, noting that 39 of the legislators who had submitted certificates of their PTI membership along with their nomination papers were already PTI legislators.
Read more: Little chance that the CB will maintain the ruling of July 12
The SC ruled that the remaining 41 legislators who had not submitted membership certificates at the time of submission of nomination papers could now do so within 15 days.
The ruling coalition subsequently filed a review petition against the SC ruling, which the Constitutional Chamber accepted in May.
