KARACHI: As the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deprived Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI) of their election symbol, Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman – Chief of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has questioned the decision. The Supreme Court of Pakistan had also upheld the decision, upon which Hafiz Naeem asked ECP to carry the same practice with Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
JI wrote a letter to ECP in which the raised question on taking action against only one prominent political party for not organising fair intra-party elections. The Karachi-based party claimed that ECP provided a walkover to PML-N and PPP, which allegedly violated the same rules of intra-party elections.
Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman held a press conference at Idara Noor-I-Haq and challenged ECP to provide the name of a party that carried fair intra-party elections except for JI. He lashed out at ECP for depriving a major political body (PTI) of its election symbol based on technical reasons but giving a green signal to other parties (PPP & PML-N) despite similar violations. According to Hafiz Naeem, the move was a double standard and rejected the decision.
The letter from JI demanded action against PML-N and PPP by cancelling the election symbols of both parties before February 8 2024. He further added that PPP and PML-N were ‘family limited companies’ and not political parties.
Continuing his statement, Hafiz Naeem commented that they respect the mandate of parties but cannot accept biased judgments under which one party got punished for violating rules and others were facilitated. He said that in current scenario has made a joke of the term ‘level playing field’.
Yesterday, PTI Counsel Sardar Latif Khosa withdrew the petition to seek a level playing field in the 2024 general elections. Latif Khosa commented that PTI has been humiliated and the party would move to the people’s court so that the survival of democracy can be possible.