What's driving PTI disqualifications?

Business Recorder

3 days ago

EDITORIAL: The Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP's) ongoing purge of PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) parliamentarians continues unabated with nine lawmakers from the party — including National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub and Senate Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz — losing their seats over their convictions by anti-terrorism courts in cases related to the May 9 riots. With this latest action on August 5, the ECP has now disqualified 14 PTI legislators within two weeks due to their convictions over the May 9 unrest. Last month, it had de-seated Jamshed Dasti, the party's MNA from Muzaffargarh, over allegedly holding a fake degree.
The ECP's recent moves have inevitably raised serious and troubling questions about its conduct. At a minimum, they reflect what many legal experts have cogently argued is its misinterpretation of constitutional disqualification rules, and at worst, about its institutional neutrality, selective application of the law, and a wilful disregard for due process and democratic principles. A bizarre panic appears to have gripped the Commission, prompting it to act with undue haste and little regard for legal consistency or the broader democratic fallout of its decisions.
As several respected legal voices have noted, these disqualifications sidestep the procedure outlined in Article 225, which requires that any election to the national or provincial assembly be challenged through a petition before an election tribunal. Even under Article 63 — invoked to disqualify those convicted over the May 9 unrest — the ECP has to follow a prescribed process and cannot act unilaterally. Disqualification can only proceed once a conviction is upheld by the highest appellate court and the speaker of the relevant assembly files a reference seeking the member's removal. In these cases, however, the ATC rulings are from trial courts, inevitably raising the question: on what grounds has the ECP assumed that these convictions will stand on appeal? By acting before the appeals process has been exhausted, it has clearly moved prematurely. Dasti's case further underscores this, as the ECP announced a by-election in his constituency, only for the Lahore High Court to suspend the notification and halt the process. The Commission also failed to give lawmakers a chance to be heard before issuing disqualification notices, completely disregarding Article 10-A, which guarantees a fair trial and enshrines the fundamental principle that no one shall be condemned without being heard.
Equally striking is the alacrity with which the electoral system acted after the May 9 riots convictions, in stark contrast to the sluggish handling of the numerous disputed results from the 2024 general elections. Much of that delay stemmed from the ECP's own failure to promptly notify election tribunals, leaving challenges unresolved for months. Then there is its lethargy in implementing various court rulings, including even that of the Supreme Court, further underscoring the selective urgency with which it operates.
Whether the May 9 trials met the highest standards of justice or the decade-long sentences were truly warranted is a separate debate. What matters is that the country's top electoral body is expected to uphold the highest standards of fairness, transparency and legal propriety, and it has apparently failed to do so. Questions must be asked about what is driving this inexplicable disqualification campaign, particularly when it targets an already weakened party posing no real threat to those in power.
This decimation of the principal opposition party in parliament — representing millions of voters — will cast a long shadow over the health of representative politics and the broader democratic project, with there also being serious consequences for public trust in institutions and national unity, especially at a time of growing domestic terror threats and global geopolitical volatility. Those in power must consider the damage being done to the polity by this systematic sidelining of the opposition.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025