- PTI election tribunal rejects PTI chief Khan’s dissolution orders following exhaustion of tribunal’s ‘limited mandate’
- PTI leaders say Khan needs to cite provision which gives him ‘unlimited powers’, claim tribunal will work till justice served
- Mazari defends Khan’s decision, says tribunal has no utility as it had finished probing intra-party election complaints
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to face another storm as the party’s election tribunal, headed by former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, has rejected to accept the dissolution orders given by PTI chief Imran Khan, with a party leader stating that it was similar to a situation which developed when former president Gen Pervez Musharraf sacked former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in March 2007.
Khan had issued a notification on Saturday, announcing dissolution of the tribunal as “its mandate had been limited” to resolving the election petitions. However, the commission’s secretary issued a notification the same day, rejecting the notification of the party chief, stating that an executive head could not dissolve a judicial forum.
When contacted, Justice Wajihuddin refused to comment over the development, stating that he could not make public his comments over the issue. “I will speak when and if the party would ask me to do so,” he maintained.
However, a PTI leader said that the party’s chief, being an executive head, could not dissolve a judicial body even if he had formed it.
“If any judicial forum is formed by the party chief for adjudication on election issues of the party, he has no powers to dissolve it. This tribunal was arisen from election disputes and it would continue to work till justice is provided to the litigants,” the PTI senior leader said, requesting anonymity.
“Once the intra-party election ended in 2012, this tribunal was formed by Khan to adjudicate the applications submitted by the applicants. The party’s cadre has accepted the tribunal’s verdict even against the party chief’s will. Now a rebellion is mounting even against Khan due to such unpopular decisions,” the PTI leader added.
Another PTI leader agreed to the notion that Khan could not dissolve the tribunal. “For instance, a justice is appointed by the government but is not under its influence once oath is taken. Similarly, ECP’s election tribunals are mandated for 120 days but they are still operating after a lapse of two years. We all know that Khan has many qualities but running organisations is not his strength,” he added.
“Chairman himself suggests in the notification that the order was implemented selectively. Why? And who granted the authority to implement the order selectively? One of the main features of functus officio is that order cannot be changed in scope or content. So this argument is not valid to consider ET dissolved.”
“Chairman states that notification is issued in exercise of his powers but does not provide explanation by which article of the constitution. It is important to provide proper reference to an article that vested powers to issue notification of dissolution. Chairman, like any other office, does not have absolute or unlimited powers,” he argued.
When contacted, PTI Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari defended Khan’s decision to dissolve the tribunal, saying that the mandate of the tribunal was only limited to resolve intra-party election disputes and it could not take up matters other than the party elections.
“Once it decided the election row regarding the party election, the chairman, who had formed the tribunal, dissolved the tribunal as its utility had been over,” she maintained.
Dr Mazari also did not buy the argument that an executive head could not dissolve a judicial forum even if the executive head had formed the tribunal himself. “It is not a tribunal of the Supreme Court. It was a tribunal formed to probe the complaints of intra-party elections. Since elections are over, there is no reason for tribunal to keep functioning,” she asserted.
