The Peshawar High Court has allowed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to contest the upcoming elections in February on its bat symbol.
The court had earlier reserved its decision on the PTI’s appeal against the election commission’s decision to withdraw the symbol from the party and nullify its intra-party elections.
The PHC accepted the PTI’s appeal and declared the election commission’s decision of December 22 null and void.
Following the decision, PTI leader Senator Ali Zafar told the media that nobody can now stop the party from winning elections. The Peshawar High Court has continued its tradition of delivering verdicts as per law and justice.
“The election commission has become our opponent,” Zafar remarked, claiming that someone who called himself a member of the commission also did not want the PTI to get the bat symbol back.
He further stressed that if the bat symbol is not added to the ECP’s website in 15 minutes, it would constitute contempt of court.
On December 22, the Election Commission of Pakistan had declared the PTI’s intra-party elections “unconstitutional” and revoked the “bat” as its electoral symbol ahead of the February 8 general elections.
The ruling underscored the election commission’s insistence on adherence to democratic processes within political parties. The PTI’s failure to conduct intra-party elections as mandated by the constitution led to the withdrawal of the symbolic representation, signaling a deviation from the established democratic norms.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recently communicated the list of election symbols for various political parties to the returning officers, outlining the symbols assigned to 145 parties, excluding Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its bat symbol.
Under the directives of the ECP, the lion symbol was granted to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the arrow symbol to the Pakistan Peoples’ Party parliamentarian (PPPP), the eagle symbol to Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), and the batsman symbol representing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Nazriati (PTI-N).
The Supreme Court on Wednesday morning disposed of the appeal of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regarding its bat election symbol as being withdrawn.
The apex court had formed a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, to address the issue. The bench, which included Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musrat Hilali, was scheduled to hear the PTI’s appeal today.
Justice Tariq Nadeem of the appellate tribunal of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday upheld the returning officer’s verdict rejecting PTI founding chairman Imran Khan’s nomination papers for constituency NA-122.
Imran’s nomination papers were rejected from NA-122 (Lahore) and NA-89 (Mianwali) on December 30.
The verdict issued by the RO for NA-122 stated that the papers were rejected on “moral” and other grounds.
