- Thursday, February 27, 2025
A four-member bench of the poll body ordered the release of a warrant for the PTI chief on July 11, after he failed to appear before the commission.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday (24) issued a non-bailable warrant for former prime minister Imran Khan, asking the police chief of capital Islamabad to arrest the latter before it on Tuesday (25), in connection to a contempt case.
According a report by the country’s premier news website Dawn, a four-member bench of the poll body headed by Nisar Durrani, a former president of the High Court Bar Association of Hyderabad, Pakistan, ordered the release of a warrant for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief on July 11, after he failed to appear before the commission.
The commission had initiated the contempt proceedings against Khan, party leader Asad Umar and former law minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in 2022 for allegedly using “intemperate” language against the chief election commissioner and itself.
The commission had sought their appearance either in person or through their counsels before it to explain their position, the Dawn report added. The three instead challenged the commission’s notices and contempt proceedings in various high courts on the grounds that Section 10 of the Elections Act 2017 — the statutory provision regarding the body’s power to punish for contempt — was against the country’s constitution.
The section, titled “Power to punish for contempt”, says the “election commission may exercise the same power as the high court to punish any person for contempt of court and the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 (V of 2003), or any other law pertaining to contempt of court shall have effect accordingly […]”.
The PTI leaders had also demanded from the high courts a declaratory relief but in January, the apex court of Pakistan had allowed the commission to continue proceedings against Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, Umar and Chaudhry.
Last month, the body decided to frame charges against the trio in July.
None of the three appeared before the commission despite being summoned at the July 11 hearing and the latter then issued arrest warrants for Khan and Chaudhry while accepting a plea by the lawyer of Umar to exempt him from hearing.
The ECP issued a warrant for the former PM saying he was “required in the contempt of the commission’s proceedings initiated in terms of Section 10 of the Elections Act, 2017”, the Dawn report added.
The warrant said Khan had failed to appear before the ECP even after she was served notices and bailable warrants for him were issued in January and March, Dawn.com reported.
