A security guard outside 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 chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in response to Gohar’s earlier published letter, said that on November 13, he had requested that the affiliation of independent senators with the PTI be recognized.
The commission said the PTI intra-party elections case was still pending and the party had obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court (LHC). According to the ECP, he cannot be recognized as PTI chairman and does not hold any legal authority in this regard.
On January 13, 2024, a three-member bench of the SC upheld the December 22, 2023 order of the ECP declaring the PTI intra-party polls null and void.
Later, PTI candidates had to contest the general elections on February 8, 2024 as independents.
Read: ‘ECP justified in case of 41 candidates’
Eighty of these independent candidates reached the National Assembly and later joined the SIC with the apparent aim of demanding seats reserved for women and minorities. The ECP, however, refused to allocate the seats to the party, a decision which the SIC challenged in the Supreme Court.
On July 12, 2024, the full 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 PTI affiliation certificates along with their nomination papers were already PTI legislators.
Learn more: There is little chance that CB will maintain the decision of July 12
The SC ruled that the remaining 41 MLAs who had not submitted their affiliation certificates at the time of submitting nominations can now do so within 15 days.
The ruling coalition then filed a review petition against the SC decision, which the Constitutional Court considered in May.
