Here is the rewritten content-
The fate of PTI’s long-held electoral symbol ‘bat’ hung in the balance as Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Saturday questioned the embattled party to present evidence to substantiate its claim that its intra-party elections were indeed held.
The remarks were made as a three-member bench — comprising the CJP, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali — heard the ECP’s petition challenging the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to restore the PTI’s ‘bat’ election symbol.
The ECP is set to designate election symbols to political parties today. The SC proceedings are being streamed live on the SC’s website and YouTube. On December 22, the ECP decided against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the general elections, saying that it had failed to conduct intra-party polls as per its prevailing constitution and election laws.
Subsequently, the PTI approached the PHC against the ECP order on Dec 26 and a single-member bench restored the party’s electoral symbol until Jan 9, directing that the case be fixed before a divisional bench.
On Dec 30, the electoral watchdog filed a review application in the PHC, arguing that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. Days later, the high court withdrew the stay on the ECP order, stripping the party of its symbol again. Consequently, the PTI moved the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling. On Wednesday, the party had withdrawn the appeal as the matter was already being heard by the PHC.
The same day, the PHC had declared “illegal” the ECP’s decision to revoke PTI’s iconic ‘bat’ symbol and reject its intra-party polls. According to the court, the PTI was entitled to the election symbol “strictly in terms of sections 215 and 217, read with any other enabling provision of the Elections Act 2017 and Election Rules 2017”.
On Thursday, the ECP had challenged the PHC’s decision to restore the PTI’s election symbol. Simultaneously, the PTI initiated legal action in the PHC, filing a contempt petition against Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and other ECP members for not implementing the high court’s order in the case.
During the previous hearing yesterday, CJP Isa had observed that democracy was a fundamental right, which should be present in both a country and a political party. ECP counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan had contended that the PTI had held its intra-party polls “secretly” and the elections were not in accordance with the party’s documents. The apex court is expected to announce its verdict on the ECP’s appeal today as returning officers (ROs) are also set to allocate poll symbols to electoral candidates.
During today’s hearing, Hamid Khan has appeared as the PTI counsel while Makhdoom Ali Khan is present as the ECP lawyer. PTI lawyer Ali Zafar and the party’s chief election commissioner (CEC) Niazullah Niazi are also present in the courtroom.
The hearing
At the beginning of the hearing, CJP Isa said that the detailed order of the PHC restoring the PTI’s symbol has been issued, at which the party counsel termed it an “excellent decision”. Here, Justice Mazhar noted that there were two questions: whether the court had jurisdiction or not and whether the ECP has the authority to investigate intra-party polls. Zafar then argued that neither the Constitution nor the Elections Act 2017 granted the electoral watchdog the right to review a party’s intra-party elections. He asserted that contesting the elections with an electoral symbol was among a political party’s rights and that depriving a party of the same would be in violation of the Constitution. The CJP asked PTI to share the ‘whole context’ of allegations against ECP and inquired about the fear of the PTI of elections. Justice Isa asked Zafar to provide any documents as proof that PTI’s intra-party elections had indeed taken place.
This is continuation to follow.