ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), restoring an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notice, has asked all the political parties to submit lists of at least 2,000 of their members, as well as deposit Rs200,000 enlistment fee by December 2.
Failure to deposit the fee would result in getting de-listed.
It’s pertinent to mention here that there are 352 political parties in the country.
Back in October, the ECP had issued a notification under the recently-adopted Elections Act, 2017, asking all political parties to comply with provisions of its Sections 201, 202, 209 and 210 within 60 days of its enforcement.
Meanwhile, in December, the IHC suspended the notification after a preliminary hearing of the petition filed by four little-known political parties—Democratic Party of Pakistan, Pakistan Democratic Front, Sada-i-Pakistan Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Safdar)—having no representation in the parliament.
The parties submitted that provisions of the Elections Act, 2017 were against the Constitution.
The petitioners had argued that they were legally enlisted political parties after having fulfilled all procedural and codal formalities.
The notification was restored by Justice Amer Farooq after the ECP submitted a written reply on the matter.
A representative of the ECP also appeared before the court and said that the notification was issued as per the law under Section 202 of the Electoral Reforms Act, 2017.
