Imran Khan to be charged in ECP contempt case next month

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The board outside the Election Commission of Pakistan premises. ECP Website/File A four-member bench headed by Nisar Durrani heard the case. Khan’s lawyer is requesting more time to gather the facts of the case. PTI requested to adjourn the matter till September.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday postponed till August 2 the indictment of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a contempt case against him.

Yesterday, the ECP ordered the Federal Capital Police to arrest Khan and present him before the commission in the contempt case in which he allegedly used “intemperate” language before the electoral body and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

The PTI chairman appeared before the Election Commission today, resulting in a suspension of his arrest warrants.

A four-member bench, headed by Nisar Durrani, heard the case today.

A member of the Election Commission said that on August 2, the commission would level the charge against the PTI chairman and directed him to appear in person in the next hearing.

The ECP initiated the case against PTI Chairman Asad Umar and former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry last year.

But the three raised the issue in different high courts, arguing that Section 10 of the Elections Act 2017 was “unconstitutional”.

However, the Supreme Court had earlier this year given the green light to the ECP’s cases and last month the ECP filed charges.

When the trio failed to appear before the commission despite repeated summons, it issued arrest warrants for Khan and former party leader Chaudhary and accepted Umar’s plea to be exempted from the hearing.

During today’s hearing, Khan’s legal counsel Shoaib Shaheen requested that the hearing be adjourned until September.

“We only have one month of vacation and since you asked for a personal appearance, we showed up,” Shaheen said.

However, he added that we have not received a copy of the order.

To this, a member of the bench replied that instructions had been given for the document. He directed the PTI lawyer to contact the law wing.

Shaheen then claimed that he needed more time to gather facts about the case since he was a new attorney on the case and did not have the complete record yet.

“In the past there were other lawyers in this case; now I am the lawyer. This is my first appearance.”

The hearing was then adjourned until 2 August.

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