The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, emphasized the fundamental right to democracy, stating that it should be present in both the country and political parties. He made these observations during a Supreme Court bench hearing a petition by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) challenging the restoration of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s electoral symbol, the ‘bat’. The PTI had approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the ECP’s decision to not let the party retain its electoral symbol for the general elections. The PHC had initially restored the party’s symbol, but later withdrew the stay on the ECP’s order. This led the PTI to move the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling. During the hearing, the ECP lawyer contended that PTI had held its intra-party polls “secretly” and were not in accordance with the party’s documents. The Chief Justice highlighted the time-sensitive nature of the case with the general elections approaching and adjourned the hearing till the next day. The PTI expressed high hopes from the Supreme Court and emphasized that having an electoral symbol was a basic right as per the Constitution. The PHC also sought a response from the ECP on a contempt plea filed by the PTI for not implementing the court’s order to reinstate the party’s electoral symbol.