In a significant victory for the embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) nullified the ruling by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and returned the electoral symbol of 'bat' to the party.
On December 22, the electoral watchdog invalidated PTI's internal elections, resulting in the withdrawal of the party's iconic ‘cricket bat’ symbol.
However, on December 26, the PHC, presided over by a single judge Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel, suspended the commission’s decision to nullify the PTI's intra-party polls and revoke its 'cricket bat' symbol.
The court in its order had directed the commission to publish the PTI’s certificate on its website and restore the electoral symbol of the party.
The ECP held a meeting following the PHC’s decision. The commission then decided to challenge the PHC decision through an intra-court appeal filed on December 30, 2023.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali, of the high court resumed the hearing on PTI's intra-party election and election symbol case today with counsels representing the party and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in attendance.
In its verdict today, the PHC today directed the ECP to upload PTI's certificate of intra-party polls on its website. "The PTI is entitled to the 'bat' symbol should be given the same as its electoral symbol," said the PHC ruling.
The verdict, which was reserved earlier in the day, was announced by a two-member bench of the high court comprising Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali. The petition was filed by PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali and other party leaders requesting the court to declare the ECP order illegal and sans jurisdiction.
As the hearing commenced, Justice Anwar remarked that the 'ladla' (blue-eyed boy) title keeps switching from person to person.
Advocate Qazi Javed stated that his client and PTI’s former district general secretary came to know about the intra-party polls from the media, mentioning that Javed wanted to participate in the party polls; but was not given the opportunity.
Read SC disposes of PTI's bat symbol plea after party withdraws it:
Advocate Javed stated that he also approached the ECP in this regard.
Upon Justice Anwar’s inquiry on whether all members or just provincial representatives were elected in the polls, Javed remarked that the representatives of the entire country were elected.
The counsel maintained that if PTI is demanding a level playing field, then it should provide the same to its party workers as well.
The lawyer for petitioner Jahangir from Charsadda, Naveed Akhtar, stated that his client was the PTI's district president and was dismissed from the party over a statement. Naveed claimed that PTI did not elect officials as per the constitution, maintaining that every party should abide by its constitution.
Justice Ali inquired whether there could be a penalty for intra-party elections or was any action taken by the electoral watchdog, to which the lawyer replied that no action was taken by the election commission.
The counsel for the complainant argued that the ECP should have ensured that the intra-party polls were held under Section 208.
PTI lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar, while presenting his arguments, said he wanted to clarify the principle of jurisdiction in the case. He said that under Article 199, the PHC is empowered to hear the party's plea as the intra-polls were held in Peshawar - which falls under the jurisdiction of the PHC.
He further said that the party's chairman also belongs to K-P and when asked about the general secretary, he replied it is Umar Ayub.
Justice Anwar remarked that if the intra-party election was against the constitution, ECP neither issued the party a show-cause notice nor any punishment and added that the election body only nullified PTI's intra-party polls.
A day earlier, the electoral watchdog sent details of election symbols of political parties to the returning officers (ROs), according to which, the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians has been allotted the ‘arrow’ symbol, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Nazaryati ‘ballay baz’ (batsman), and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ‘tiger’.
The electoral body sent the election symbols of 145 political parties to the ROs, however, the PTI was missing from the list of election symbols.
The ROs were directed to allot the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party the election symbol of an ‘eagle’, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ‘kite’, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam ‘book’ and the Jamaat-e-Islami ‘scale’. The names of various political parties, including the PTI, were not included in the list of electoral symbols.
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