The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday once again deferred the indictment of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a contempt case after he failed to appear before the body despite an earlier summons.
A four-member bench of the electoral body has deferred Khan’s indictment multiple times over his repeated refusal to appear before it in the contempt case, which was initiated in August 2022 against him and former PTI leaders Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Asad Umar. All three are accused of using “intemperate” language against the chief election commissioner and the electoral watchdog.
As proceedings commenced last year, all three men refused to appear before the ECP, and obtained stay orders in various high courts by arguing that Section 10 of the Elections Act, 2017 was against the Constitution. The ECP then approached the Supreme Court to club together all the petitions, with the apex court allowing the ECP to continue proceedings against all three. On June 21, the ECP announced it would frame charges against Khan, Umar and Fawad.
After all three once again failed to appear before the ECP, the electoral body issued arrest warrants for Fawad and Khan while accepting an exemption plea from Umar. On July 24, as Khan continued to skip proceedings, a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued for him, with directions to Islamabad police to arrest him and present him before the commission.
Acting on the threat of arrest, the PTI chief appeared before the ECP on July 25 for the first time since the case was initiated, leading to the non-bailable warrants being suspended.
In today’s hearing, Khan’s counsel once again sought his client’s exemption from appearance, claiming the PTI chief had to visit hospital for a medical checkup. To this request, a member of the bench inquired whether Khan would appear at the next hearing. To this, the PTI chief’s lawyer said that he would “try” and sought the next hearing in September. However, the commission’s members said they would be busy by then—with elections—and the matter needed to be wrapped up in August.
The hearing was then adjourned until Aug. 22, when the ECP said Khan would be indicted.