The chief election commissioner Thursday expressed his displeasure over non-appearance of petitioners in the Senate election video scandal case, saying “The petitioners do not follow the case, but blame the election commission for not deciding it,” reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The election commission on Thursday (today) had conducted a hearing of the Senate election video scandal case, but, none of the petitioners including Farrukh Habib, Maleeka Bukhari and Kanwal Shauzab appeared before the election commission.

Petitioner Aliya Hamza and her lawyer were also absent from the hearing of the case.

“Maleeka Bukhari is in Karachi. She has sought some tome for a reply,” the assistant lawyer told the chief election commissioner.

“The case was adjourned 17 times out of which 10 adjournments were demanded by the PTI itself,” said the chief election commissioner and questioned: “Upon what basis is the election commission blamed?” He said it seemed that the petitioners themselves did not want to pursue the case

Due to absence of the petitioners and their lawyer, lawyer for former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani started his arguments and said: “The case is being delayed only for the media trial. The election was contested by Hafeez Sheikh against Yousaf Raza Gillani, and he [Hafeez] neither challenged the election nor made any statement to the media.”

He maintained all the petitioners in the case had approached the election commission individually, and adding that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not approach the election commission as a party for the case.

“There is no direct charge against Yousaf Raza Gillani in the whole case,” said Malik Javed and pointed out that without a forensic of judge Arshad Malik’s video, the Supreme Court did not take any action.

“No action can be taken on the basis of the video of the press conference” stated he.

Reporter: Usman Khan