By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the former ruling party led by jailed Imran Khan, on Wednesday withdrew its petition to secure the bat symbol from the Supreme Court, as it awaited a verdict from the Peshawar High Court on its intra-party elections.
The bat symbol, which has been associated with PTI since its inception in 1996, was revoked by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on December 22, after it nullified the party’s intra-party elections for the third time since last year.
The ECP said that PTI had failed to comply with its directions and the Elections Act 2017 and had not held the elections following its constitution and rules.
The election watchdog also invoked Section 215 of the Elections Act 2017, which states that a political party that does not hold intra-party elections within the specified period shall not be eligible to obtain an election symbol.
PTI challenged the ECP’s decision in the Peshawar High Court, which suspended the order on December 26 and allowed the party to use the bat symbol until the final verdict.
However, the ECP filed a review petition in the same court, requesting it to review PTI’s intra-party elections and its decision related to the election symbol.
PTI lawyer and leader Barrister Gohar Khan, who was elected as the party chairman in the disputed polls, said that the party decided to withdraw the plea from the apex court as the verdict in the main case was expected at any time today.
“Keeping this in mind, the petition we had filed in the SC against the [PHC’s] interim order became infructuous […] Because the verdict in the main case is expected at any time today […] we have withdrawn the plea from the SC,” Khan told reporters.
“We hope that the verdict will be based on justice and rights and that we will get the bat symbol.”
The intra-party elections, which were held on December 2 on the directives of the ECP, were marred by controversy and criticism, as some of the party’s founding members and workers alleged that the process was rigged and undemocratic.
Akbar S. Babar, a founding member of the PTI who had filed a petition in the ECP against the party’s finances and internal affairs, said that the elections were a sham and a selection process aimed at throwing out party workers and giving the reins to a few lawyers.
He claimed that Khan, the party’s founder and former chairman, had nominated Gohar Khan as his successor without consulting the party’s central executive committee or the general council.
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