ISLAMABAD: The city police Monday failed to submit a challan before the court in a case pertaining to threatening the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and their families against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry due to which the court adjourned the hearing of the case till March 18.

Judicial magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja adjourned the case after the investigation officer (IO) failed to present the challan before the court.

The PTI leader and his counsels including Faisal Chaudhry and Ali Bukhari appeared before the court.

At the start of the hearing, the judge inquired whether the challan of the case was submitted. To this, the court was informed that the IO has so far not submitted the challan.

The judge ordered to call the IO of the case in order to question him as to why he has not submitted the challan despite the passage of 14 days.

During the hearing, the PTI leader’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry requested the court to fix the next hearing of the case after March 16 as by-elections on the National Assembly seats are scheduled for March 16.

Later, the sessions court adjourned the hearing till March 18. Talking to media outside the court, Chaudhry said that a sedition case had been registered against him, adding: “All my voters are traitors if I am the traitor”. He said that police could not submit a challan in the sedition case.

He said that the government had accepted the PTI lawmakers’ resignations but was not ready to hold elections. This government has damaged the reputation of green passport, he said, adding that the current government was attempting to create hurdles in the way of PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

Chaudhry said that the ECP was reluctant to implement a decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that polls in Punjab should be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial assembly. It would be a violation of the Constitution if the election were not held on time, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023