The Islamabad High Court rejected on Monday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s request seeking deferment of the elections on the slots of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.
Earlier Monday, five PTI senators filed the petition, claiming the current electoral college was incomplete and therefore ‘unconstitutional’, as Senate polls were not held in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The party implored the court to postpone the chairman and deputy chairman polls till the election for Senate seats from KP.
During the hearing, PTI’s counsel Shoaib Shaheen said it would be better if the elections, scheduled for Tuesay, were held after Eid. “What could go wrong if the elections are held after Eid,” he said.
However, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq rejected the request shortly after reserving judgment. The court issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking its response to the petition.
“The case of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Senate seats is already under hearing in the Peshawar High Court,” stated the registrar’s office.
“For the election of the K-P Senate seats, the PHC should be approached,” the registrar observed. In a letter addressed to the secretary of the Senate, PTI expressed concern regarding the alleged ‘deprivation’ of its legitimate right to participate in the election of the chairman and deputy chairman of the upper house.
PTI quoted Article 59 of the Constitution, stating that the Senate is to comprise 96 members, with 23 elected from each province and four from ICT.
The party quoted Article 60(1) of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, which reads:
Meanwhile, after seeking postponement of polls for Senate’s top slots, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf senators ruled out impression of boycotting the elections for the Upper House’s chairman and deputy chairman, to be held Tuesday.
“We are not boycotting the Senate chairman and deputy chairman’s elections,” Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur clarified in a statement after the Imran Khan-founded party requested to defer the polls until the conduct of elections on vacant Upper House seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The PTI will fully take part in the forthcoming polls and the party senators will finalise its strategy in a senators’ meeting today. “We are part of this political process and we will participate in it.”
