The Peshawar High Court (PHC) is currently hearing the PTI’s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s order revoking the party’s ‘bat’ electoral symbol and declaring its intra-party polls “unconstitutional”. The hearing is taking place shortly after the party withdrew from the Supreme Court its appeal seeking the restoration of its electoral symbol. PTI leader Barrister Gohar said that the case in the PHC was heard all day yesterday and the hearing had been adjourned till today. He said the PHC had stated that today, likely before 11am, an order would be issued. Gohar said that the PHC would issue the final verdict, saying, “We hope that the verdict will be based on justice and rights and that we will get the ‘bat’ symbol.”
On December 22, the Election Commission of Pakistan had decided against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the February 8 election, saying that it had failed to hold intra-party polls in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws. The PTI had approached the PHC against the ECP order on Dec 26 and a single-member bench restored the electoral symbol of the party till January 9. The election watchdog had filed a review petition in the PHC, arguing that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction.
PTI counsel Barrister Ali Zafar had argued before the PHC that the electoral watchdog was “only a record keeper” and did not have the power to “snatch a party’s electoral symbol”. After marathon arguments advanced by lawyers representing the PTI and the ECP for almost five hours, the bench had adjourned the hearing till today. The PHC’s Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali presided over today’s hearing, where counsels of those challenging the PTI’s intra-party polls were to present their arguments.
As the PTI withdrew its petition before the SC, Babar, the party’s estranged founding member, lamented that the PHC had not issued notices to “five important respondents”. He asserted that the ECP had “full authority” to make decisions regarding political parties and that the electoral watchdog was “being prevented from fulfilling its duties instead of being strengthened”. Babar said petitions were being filed before multiple high courts against the ECP and that the “PTI leaders had been robbed of their rights” due to the “fake intra-party polls held in a closed room”. He further said the PTI lawyers were considering the election commission a “post office” and asserted that there should be no interference in its functions. Babar vowed to approach the Supreme Court if justice was not served.
At the outset of the hearing, Advocate Naveed Akhtar, the counsel for Jehangir, stated that the matter was also fixed for hearing before the SC. Justice Anwar recalled that the PTI had said it would not pursue the matter there. Barrister Zafar also reassured the court about the same. Here, Advocate Qazi Jawwad, the counsel for Yousaf Ali, stated that his client had served as the party’s district secretary general and wanted to contest the upcoming general elections but “was not given the chance”. Justice Anwar observed that if the petitioner was challenging the PTI’s intra-party elections, he should have sought that the polls be held again but did not do so.