The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday gave the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) permission to pursue its legal actions against the former prime minister Imran Khan and the leaders of his party, Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry, for alleged electoral body contempt.
The decisions were made by a three-judge SC panel that included Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Ayesha A. Malik.
For allegedly using “intemperate” language against the chief election commissioner and ECP, the PTI chief Imran Khan and party leaders Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Mian Shabbir Ismail, and Danial Khalid Khokhar received contempt notices from the ECP in August and September of last year. They were asked to appear in person or through their counsels before the commission to defend their actions.
The PTI leaders said that Section 10 of the Elections Act of 2017, which is the statute about the commission’s jurisdiction to penalize for contempt, violates the Constitution, but instead of appearing before the ECP, they disputed the ECP notices and contempt proceedings in several high courts.
The PTI officials had also asked the high courts for a declarative dismissal of the accusations.
Later, a petition was filed by Advocate Sajeel Sheryar Swati on behalf of the ECP, requesting that all six cases be consolidated before a single high court rather than the commission defending its position over the issuance of contempt orders against PTI leaders in various high courts.
