Islamabad (September 25, 2017): Chairman Pakistn Tehreek-e-Insaf Insaf Imran Khan did not appear before the four-member commission of Election Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Muhammad Raza in the case pertaining to bailable warrant in contempt of court case.
Imran’s lawyer Babar Awan appeared before the commission and submitted the rebuttal to the show cause notice issued by the commission. The reply said that Imran Khan has not committed contempt of court and that the reply is written keeping in view of the judgment of Islamabad High Court.
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The counsel of petitioner Akbar Babar, a PTI dissident and one of the founding members of the party, Ahmad Hassan was also present in the court.
It may be mentioned here that on September 23 Islamabad High Court ordered the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman to respond the show cause notice issued to him by the Election Commission of Pakistan in contempt of court case. The three-member larger bench headed by Justice Amir Farooq and comprises of Justice Mohasin and Justice Mian Gul Hassan heard the contempt of court case against Imran Khan.
The Court announcing the order, which was consist of a page, said that the warrant of Imran Khan has been suspended, however he has to comply to respond the show cause notice issued by the ECP. Later the court had adjourned the hearing of the case till September 26.
It may be also be mentioned here that on the 20th of this month division bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on suspended bailable warrant issued by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for PTI chief Imran Khan for committing contempt of court.
Suspending the warrant the IHC directed Imran Khan to submit reply to ECP on the show cause notice in contempt case.
It is to be mentioned here that ECP had issued bailable arrest warrants for Imran Khan on September 14 following his failure to show up for the contempt of court proceeding.
The ECP had also ordered the PTI chief to submit surety bonds worth Rs 0.1 million.
The commission, while hearing the contempt of court case against Imran Khan had also ordered him to appear before the court on September 25 (today).
The counsel for Imran Khan, Babar Awan, had argued that the PTI chief was abroad and had returned to the country just an hour ago.
Last month, ECP had issued a second show-cause notice to Imran Khan after he failed to reply to the earlier notice regarding the contempt of court proceedings against him.
Imran Khan had initially challenged maintainability of the contempt petition and raised objections over ECP’s jurisdiction to initiate contempt proceedings against him; the commission, however, declared on August 10 that it had the legal right to hear the contempt case.
It had then issued a formal show-cause notice to the PTI chairman, asking him to submit a reply by Aug 23.
PTI chief’s counsel Babar Awan had then appeared before the five-member ECP bench — headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza — and pleaded that they wanted to challenge the ECP’s judgment regarding the maintainability of the contempt petition and hence, should be granted some time to do so.
Imran Khan had accused the ECP of being biased in the foreign funding case following which his counsel had tendered an apology with the commission. However, the PTI chairman in a TV interview later said that his counsel had tendered an apology in his personal capacity and that he had not apologised.
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