- PTI chairman tells party’s election tribunal head to step down after defiance of party discipline
In a letter, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has asked the party’s election tribunal head Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed to step down after his “defiance of party discipline”.
The former Supreme Court (SC) judge and the PTI leadership have been involved in a cold war since his two-member tribunal ordered fresh intra-party polls and the dissolution of all party offices after allegations of serious irregularities in the party’s election process.
Earlier this week, the tribunal convened a meeting in defiance of the party chairman’s decision to dissolve the election tribunal, announced through a public statement after it summoned him for not holding fresh polls.
In the letter dated April 29, the PTI chairman said that Justice (r) Wajihuddin’s decision to call the meeting was “against the party discipline and shows the party in a bad light as is apparent from various adverse comments in the national press”. He claimed that the former judge acted in a manner “prejudicial to the party interests”.
“Please be advised that any proceedings conducted by you after dissolution cannot and will not be recognised as valid. I am also very surprised that in spite of my earlier intimation to you about certain renegade individuals with dubious background, you have chosen to invite them to your proceedings,” the letter added.
Moreover, Khan blamed Justice (r) Wajihuddin for choosing to ignore questions raised by senior PTI Core Committee member Shafqat Mehmood over the authority and validity of his tribunal. “I would therefore, call upon you to stand down and not conduct meetings of the erstwhile tribunal forthwith,” wrote the PTI chairman.