Pak election commission defers till August 2 former PM Imran Khan's indictment in contempt case

Election Commission of Pakistan defers former PM Imran Khan's indictment in contempt case till Aug 2; Chaudhry apologizes. Khan appears before ECP, requests more time to gather case record. Imran Khan denies wrongdoing.

Pakistan's election commission on July 25 deferred till August 2 the indictment of Imran Khan in a case linked to contempt of the top electoral body and its head after the former prime minister appeared before it in person for the first time.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) initiated contempt proceedings against Mr. Khan, 70, and former leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry last year for allegedly using “intemperate” language against the chief election commissioner and the electoral watchdog.

July 25 development came as the PTI chief appeared before the ECP for the first time since the case was taken up in October last year after the Election Commission of Pakistan on July 24 directed the Islamabad police to arrest Mr. Khan and produce him before it on Tuesday.

However, instead of appearing before the ECP, the three had challenged the ECP notices and contempt proceedings in various high courts on the grounds that Section 10 of the Elections Act 2017 -- which is the statutory provision related to the commission’s power to punish for contempt -- was against the Constitution.

The PTI leaders had also sought from the high courts a declaratory relief from the charges.

But in January, the Supreme Court had allowed the ECP to continue proceedings against them and on June 21, the ECP had decided to frame charges against the trio.

In the July 11 hearing, they did not appear before the commission despite being summoned, following which the ECP issued arrest warrants for Mr. Chau­dhry and Mr. Khan. It had, however, accepted a plea by Umar’s lawyer to allow him an exemption from the hearing.