The Peshawar High Court (PHC) suspended on Tuesday the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision of revocation of the bat symbol for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
While announcing a verdict reserved on PTI’s petition challenging the Election Commission’s order declaring the intra-party polls as “illegal”, the court stated that a double bench will hear the matter after winter vacations.
Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel pronounced the verdict shortly after reserving his verdict.
The submission of the party’s plea comes after the electoral watchdog last week voided, for the second time in under than a month, PTI’s internal elections in which Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was elected as the party’s new chairman.
At the hearing’s outset, PTI lawyer Ali Zafar said the PTI was given 20 days for holding elections and it held internal party elections on December 3 in Peshawar.
The ECP admitted the veracity of the intra-party elections and issued a certificate to the party, he said.
The PTI counsel said then the ECP withdrew the electoral symbol saying the one who conducted the elections was not the right person. Hence, it invalidated the elections raising objection on the election commissioner, he added.
Zafar argued that the ECP’s directives were illegal, asserting that stripping the PTI of its electoral symbol was also unjust. “With over 0.8 million members, none from within the party raised concerns about the intra-party polls,” he conveyed to the court.
He also questioned the relevance of individuals approaching the ECP. “These are ordinary citizens, not affiliated with the PTI,” the lawyer contended.
