Senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for Senate elections from Islamabad Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday to throw out the applications, seeking his disqualification, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In his reply to the petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to the election commission, Gilani argued that the objections raised in the PTI’s petitions were ‘frivolous, and that party leaders Farrukh Habib, Maleeka Ali Bukhari and Kanwal Shauzab had no right to file the petition since they, what the PPP leader stated in the reply, were ‘habitual petitioners’.  

He accused the petitioners of issuing statements even against the ECP just for the sake of cheap publicity.

Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani told the ECP that the video on the basis of which PTI leaders had sought his disqualification was not genuine and that the Supreme Court (SC) had already set the criterion for a video to be admitted as credible evidence.  

He stated in the petition that the ECP was not authorised to record proofs.  

Furthermore, the respondent said that there were no direct allegations made against him in the petition filed by the PTI leaders.  

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had, on March 22, submitted fresh applications to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for the seat of Senate chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s disqualification case.

A four-member bench of the ECP, headed by Member Punjab Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, is hearing the PTI’s petitions, seeking Gilani’s disqualification on the basis of the video in which his son Ali Haider Gilani was seen telling two PTIA MNAs the way to waste votes.

PTI has named two of its MNAs, Faheem Khan and Jamil Ahmed, who were seen in the controversial video, as respondents in the case.

Reporter:  Zeeshan Bhatti