Refuting all the allegations levelled by the PTI that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had kept the party deprived of a level-playing field in a run-up to the general elections scheduled to be held on February 8, 2024, the ECP on Sunday prayed to the Supreme Court (SC) to reject the PTI’s petition with fine, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In its reply submitted to the apex court in the level-playing field case, the election commission said that on the SC’s order, its officials had a meeting with the PTI leaders at which they assured the latter that there would be no discrimination against them and that the party would be treated at par with other parties. “In this connection, the ECP also issued instructions to the IGPs of all the four provinces,” the commission said in its reply.

It further said that by December 26, 2023, PTI had filed 33 complaints from across the country.

The commission also provided to the SC details of the steps it had taken after it received these complaints. “The IGPs and chief secretaries of the four provinces as well as the returning officers (ROs) submitted their reports to the ECP,” read the reply.

The commission further said that in the light of the reports submitted to it by the ROs, it rejected all these allegations. “Out of 843 nomination papers filed by the PTI candidates for the National Assembly (NA) seats, 598 were accepted, while 245 were rejected.”

Similarly, the ECP went on to say, out of 1,777 papers filed by the party’s candidates for the provincial assemblies’ seats, 1,398 were accepted while 379 were rejected.

“Hence, the percentage of the total number of papers accepted stands at 76.18,” the commission concluded.

Reporter: Amanat Gishkori