PTI submits details of intra-party polls to ECP in bid to qualify for 'bat' symbol

• Raoof Hasan submits details of Form 65, details of office-bearers. 
• Party seeks to obtain ECP's certificate to regain its "bat" symbol.
• Akbar S Babar challenges, seeks annulment of intra-party polls.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed the documents related to its recently concluded intra-party polls to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), The News reported on Sunday.

The documents, submitted by PTI's Federal Election Commissioner Raoof Hasan, include details of the newly-elected party office-bearers, a certificate of the party chief containing Form 65, names of the core committee members and other relevant records.

The party, which elected Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Omar Ayub as its chairman and secretary general on March 3, aims to secure the relevant certificate to qualify for the allocation of its electoral symbol "bat" by the electoral body.

The development comes as the former ruling party has been engulfed in a months-long saga surrounding its intra-party polls and electoral symbol.

After being kicked out of the election race following the Supreme Court's verdict upholding the ECP's decision wherein the electoral body had revoked its "bat" symbol citing unlawful intra-party polls, the PTI conducted fresh intra-party polls last week.

However, the recent intra-party polls have been once again challenged by PTI's founding member Akbar S Babar who had filed two separate pleas with the electoral body seeking annulment of the intra-party elections.

Taking to journalists, Babar said that he moved the ECP against the "fresh fraud" of the PTI, adding that he was kept away from the intra-party elections.

Terming the PTI intra-party elections a "drama", the petitioner asked why the same faces are elected unopposed every time.

"The party membership of those lawmakers who have joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) should be revoked," he demanded.

Referring to the SC’s verdict, Babar said he was a member of the former ruling party and alleged that the party’s top brass "did not want the leadership to go into the hands of workers".

"The party’s leadership does not have the prerogative to strike a deal with any other political party."