Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on Thursday said he would move the Supreme Court against the formation of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and discretionary funds for lawmakers.
Addressing a press conference at TMQ headquarters, he said that he would appear before the court in this regard.
The cleric said the ECP’s formation was important than its dissolution. He demanded that the government sack the ECP members as their appointments were “unconstitutional”. Declaring discretionary funds for the prime minister, chief ministers and other legislators as unconstitutional, the TMQ chief called for freezing them immediately.
Meanwhile, following one of the demands Qadri made in his ‘deal’ with the government to end his party’s long march in Islamabad, the ECP has sought more time from the government to scrutinise the electoral candidates.
ECP Director General Sher Afgan said that a reform package seeking more time for the scrutiny of candidates in forthcoming elections has been sent to the government for approval.
Talking to a private TV channel, he said that if the reform package was approved then elections would be held by the end of May.
He said that the package was seeking more time (from seven days to 30) for scrutiny of candidates. However, time for appeals would also be increased by seven to 10 days, he added.
Afgan said that normally the commission needs 50 days for processing election procedure from filing nomination papers to holding polls. He, however, said that 26 more days would be required to scrutinise the candidates.
To a question, he said that the package would provide sufficient time to the returning officers for ensuring scrutiny of the candidates by taking information from relevant institutions.
