ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The Election Commission of Pakistan has released an updated list of 160 registered political parties, but several prominent parties, including the PTI, the MQM-P, and the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), appear on it without the names of their heads.
The list, published on Thursday, also names no chief for Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, and the Awam Pakistan Party, which former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi launched in 2024.
All of these parties remain on the commission’s record of registered parties. The commission gave a reason only in the case of the PkMAP, saying that a case over the party’s intra-party elections and amendments to its constitution was still pending.
Who is missing
The omissions mean the official record carries no name for the PTI’s chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the MQM-P’s leader, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, or the PkMAP’s chairman, Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
A party’s leadership is recorded by the commission on the basis of intra-party elections that it accepts. In December 2023, the commission refused to accept the PTI’s intra-party polls, and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold that ruling cost the party its cricket bat symbol before the February 2024 general election.
In April this year, the commission directed the MQM-P to hold its intra-party elections by October 15.
This week, Barrister Gohar also asked the Federal Constitutional Court to review its order on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emergency cases.
The updated list comes as the commission prepares for local government elections in Islamabad, for which more than 3,500 candidates have filed nomination papers.
