Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Monday submitted fresh applications to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for the seat of Senate chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s disqualification case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

A four-member bench of the ECP, headed by Member Punjab Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, is hearing the PTI’s petitions, seeking Gilani’s disqualification on the basis of the video in which his son Ali Haider Gilani was seen telling two PTIA MNAs the way to waste votes.

PTI has named two of its MNAs, Faheem Khan and Jamil Ahmed, who were seen in the controversial video, as respondents in the case.

“In our view, Faheem Khan and Jamil Ahmed are both witnesses in the case,” said PTI’s Maleeka Bukhari, and added, “It was on ECP’s directives that the witnesses have been made the respondents.”

She further said if the election commission was of the view that any of the PTI MNAs has committed a wrongdoing, it should take action against it.

Irshad Qaiser, Member of the ECP from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), said on the occasion that directives of the election commission had not been implemented in letter and spirit.  

When the ECP inquired from Maleeka Bukhari as to which PTI’s petition should be heard: the first one or the new one, Maleeka replied that it was incumbent upon the election commission to ensure transparency.  

Later, talking to the media outside the ECP office, PTI leaders Maleeka Bukhari and Farrukh Habib said today the party had raised the issue of public interest in the election commission.

Maleeka said mockery of law and the constitution was made on March 3.  

She called upon the party workers and supporters to always stand by truth. “If you show perseverance, then none could defeat you,” she said, and added that if the ECP did not announce verdict in the case soon, then eyebrows would be raised.

She said the nation had witnessed the sale and purchase of votes during elections just because those indulging in this practice are rich and affluent.  

PTI leader regretted that despite the fact that Ali Haider Gilani, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son, had confessed to have told PTI MNAs the way to waste votes ahead of Senate elections, the election commission did not take any action.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had, on March 10, rejected the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) petition, seeking non-issuance of the notification of victory of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for Senate elections from Islamabad Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.

However, the election commission agreed to take up PTI’s application for declaring Gilani disqualified for the Senate seat on March 22, and issued notices to Gilani and his son Ali Haider Gilani in this regard.  

Soon after issuing the verdict, the Election Commission of Pakistan also released the notification of 48 successful senators including Yousaf Raza Gilani and PTI’s Faisal Vawda.

A day ago, on March 9, the ECP had rejected an application moved by ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for withholding the notification of Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s success in the recently-held Senate elections, saying it was incomplete.

PTI counsel Barrister Ali Zafar, Parliamentary Leader for Railways Farrukh Habib and MNA Kanwal Shauzab appeared before the commission and recorded their arguments.

Ali Zafar claimed that rigging was done during the Senate polls through money and party tickets, and that its evidence came to light in the shape of a video just a day before the elections.