By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The election watchdog on Thursday challenged a court ruling that allowed the party of former prime minister Imran Khan to keep its cricket bat symbol, setting up a legal showdown ahead of the February 8 general elections.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which overturned the ECP’s decision to declare the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and strip the party of its iconic bat electoral symbol.
The ECP had ruled in December that the PTI’s internal elections were invalid and violated the country’s election laws and the party’s own constitution. The PTI challenged the ECP’s decision in the PHC, which sided with the party and declared the ECP’s order unconstitutional.
The PHC also directed the ECP to publish on its website the certificate filed by the PTI after holding intra-party polls and to allot the bat symbol to the party in accordance with the election law and rules.
The bat symbol is widely recognized as the PTI’s trademark, as Khan was a former cricket star who led Pakistan to its only World Cup victory in 1992.
The ECP’s appeal could delay the allotment of the election symbol to the PTI, which is expected to announce its candidates for the parliamentary and provincial seats by Thursday night.
The commission has claimed that the PHC verdict was based on “misreading and non-reading” of the relevant provisions of the election law and that the PTI had failed to prove that it had conducted intra-party elections in accordance with the law.
The ECP has also expressed concern over the time constraint, as the Returning Officers (ROs) are to allocate poll symbols to the contesting candidates on January 13, who were sent the list of symbols on Tuesday and the list did not contain over a dozen symbols, including bat.
The Supreme Court is expected to take up the ECP petition this week and decide the fate of the PTI’s symbol and intra-party polls, which could have a significant impact on the upcoming elections, scheduled for February 2023.
PTI chairman Gohar Khan, who replaced Imran Khan after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2022 on corruption charges, said the party was ready to contest the ECP’s appeal but hoped that the Supreme Court would uphold the PHC’s verdict.
“We respect the ECP’s right to appeal, but we are confident that the Supreme Court will not interfere with the PHC’s decision, which was based on the principles of justice and democracy,” Gohar Khan told reporters in Islamabad.
He said the party had finalized its consultations for awarding tickets to its candidates and would make the announcement around 9 p.m. or 11 p.m. on Thursday.
The PTI is one of the main opposition parties in Pakistan, which has been under a caretaker government since August 2023, when the five-year term of the previous parliament ended. The party has accused the ECP and the interim administration of favoring the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of three times former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and creating hurdles for the PTI and other opposition parties.
Several PTI leaders, including Imran Khan, are facing legal cases and are currently in jail. The party has claimed that the cases are politically motivated and aimed at undermining its chances in the elections.
Pakistan is facing a host of challenges, including a worsening economic crisis, a resurgent Taliban insurgency, and strained relations with the United States and India, as it prepares for the polls. The elections are seen as a crucial test for the country’s fragile democracy, which has been interrupted by several military coups in the past.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
