ISLAMABAD
The situation turned ugly on Tuesday in the contempt of Election Commission (ECP) case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief as the electoral body summoned the interior secretary for non-compliance of its order to present the party head before it.
The PTI chairman’s counsel Shoaib Shaheen appeared before the ECP and informed it that his client could not be produced as the interior secretary had said his life was in danger.
Advocate Shaheen said that it was an insult to the ECP. The commission had issued production orders for the PTI Chairman but it was not implemented, he added.
Punjab Police AIG (Operations) told the ECP that there are threats to the life of the chairman which he himself had expressed. The head of the bench, Nisar Durrani, asked the police officer whether he believed what the PTI chief had said was true.
The AIG said that Rawalpindi is densely populated and the journey of the PTI chief to the ECP is not safe. He showed his inability to produce the PTI chief before the ECP and suggested that the commission must get a written apology from the accused by itself.
Earlier, the AIG submitted a report to the ECP regarding the appearance of the PTI chief in which the interior ministry asked the commission to go to Adiala Jail to hear the case. On AIG’s apology, the ECP summoned the interior secretary on November 13.
The ECP expressed anguish on the interior secretary’s apology and observed that if the department cannot provide security to a single person, how it [ECP] could hold general elections. “How interior ministry can order the ECP,” the head of the four-member bench asked.
The ministry of interior will not produce the PTI chairman before the ECP due to security reasons. The ministry and Islamabad police have informed the ECP in this regard citing that production of the former premier would be a security risk. The ministry issued an apology to the ECP.
