SC ruling may pave way for floor crossing, fears Imran

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday expressed apprehensions that the Supreme Court would pave way for floor crossing by setting aside the verdict on Article 63-A.
Talking to the media persons after attending a corruption reference hearing at the accountability court, the founder of opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said that the ruling elite was compromising the rule of law and democracy for staying in power.
Referring to the detailed verdict on the reserved seats, the PTI fou­nder said the eight judges explained that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision on the par­­ty’s election symbol was “biased”.
He said the PTI was deprived of reserved seats, and the “fraud elections” were allegedly given protection by the judiciary.
He warned the chief election commissioner that he could be tried under Article 6 for engineered elections.

He also pointed out that the ECP set aside three intraparty elections of the PTI. However, the commission turned deaf ears to the irregularities in the case of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s and Pakis­tan Peoples Party’s intraparty elections.
Mr Khan told the media that everything was planned by the “three umpires and three players”, while the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — a reference to the PML-N, PPP, MQM-P and other parties that had formed an alliance against the then ruling PTI government — was also hand in glove.
He alleged that Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa had “already planned extension [of his service]”. Both CEC and CJP were “partners”, he remarked. Justice Isa did not summon former commissioner of Rawalpindi over his confession on election rigging, he pointed out, recalling that the commissioner was abducted after his startling revelations on rigging in the general elections at a news conference.
The ex-premier said the “third umpire also wanted extension in his service”, therefore, he needed PDM’s support.
He said the PTI would stage protests across Pakistan and urged the people to join the protest movement, pointing out that the district administration was reluctant to issue a no-objection certificate for its Sept 28 jalsa.
Graft reference
Earlier at the hearing of £190m corruption reference against the ex-premier and his spouse Bushra Bibi, Judge Nasir Javed Rana expressed displeasure after the accountability court was informed that the defence counsel could not conclude the cross-examination of the last prosecution witness.
The prosecution counsel pointed out that the counsel for Bushra Bibi could not complete the cross-examination of the investigation officer — the last prosecution witness — at the 25th consecutive hearing.
The judge adjourned further hea­r­ing till Saturday (today), when de­­fence counsel Usman Riaz Gill wou­ld continue to question the witness.
Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2024