Unabated political attacks on state institutions are on the rise and unfortunately there is no realisation in political parties that such mindset negates rule of law in the society.
While those in government are targeting the judiciary, the PTI on the other hand has launched a smear campaign against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja.
In a major development, the PTI has now decided to file a disqualification reference in Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the CEC for meeting the ruling coalition team after having reserved the verdict in the PTI prohibited funding case.
Indeed every political party has a right to move the SJC under article 290 yet PTI reaction indicates the impression that it wants to get stopped by hook or by crook decision of the Election Commission in prohibited funding case.
According to different legal experts, the party does not have sufficient ground to go to the SJC.
In our view, there is nothing wrong in meeting with political parties. Even in courts, judges sometimes meet parties in chambers.
As regards Election Commission, it is supposed to meet political parties on different matters and listens to their grievances.
In fact in the past, the PTI also used to meet the CEC. We may recall that the PTI leaders had visited the election commission and held a meeting there soon after Supreme Court’s verdict on open ballot in the Senate.
Those in the coalition government would have definitely demanded an early decision on PTI’s prohibited funding case and in our view, the PTI instead of pursuing the course of SJC should also approach the CEC to present and explain its point of view on funding cases of political parties.
The PTI leadership must also keep in mind that if their reference was rejected by the SJC, it will also affect their standing in the public.
If the party has done nothing wrong as its top leadership claim, it should not worry about decision of the Election Commission, which we are confident will give decision in a complete fair and impartial manner.
