Fact-check: Has the Election Commission delisted PTI?
Neither has the ECP removed PTI from its list of registered political parties, nor has it reassigned former prime minister Imran Khan’s name to another party
Updated Tuesday Aug 01 2023
Social media posts suggest that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has deleted former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from its list of registered political parties in the country.
The claim is false.
Claim
“Breaking news, the election commission has removed PTI from the list of political parties,” wrote a verified Twitter user on July 10, “Election commission is in such a hurry that it has removed PTI even before it is banned.”
The tweet has been retweeted nearly 10,000 times and liked over 24,000 times, to date.
In a quote-tweet, the user later claimed that the ECP had updated its list and was claiming to have accidentally deleted the PTI’s name.
On July 10, another verified Twitter user wrote: “ECP has removed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s name from the list and Imran Khan has been made the chairman of some national labour movement.”
Identical claims were also shared on Facebook.
Fact
The Election Commission of Pakistan, tasked to conduct polls in the country, has neither delisted the PTI from its list of registered political parties nor has it reassigned former prime minister Imran Khan’s name to another party.
Haroon Khan Shinwari, the additional director of general media coordination at the ECP, told Geo Fact Check over the phone that the PTI is still listed on the ECP’s website.
“Nothing has changed,” said Shinwari, “PTI is present along with 167 other [political] parties. Their heads are also named.”
Shinwari added that there is a constitutional process to delist a political party, the ECP cannot do so on its own.
The official also shared an internal ECP document which lists down all the political parties which can contest the upcoming polls in the country. There are 168 political parties on the list, and the PTI's name is present in the document, along with that of its chairman, Imran Khan.
A list of political parties is also available on the ECP's website and can be seen here.
With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.
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