LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and ordered the removal of the party’s recognisable electoral symbol, the bat. The Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed the case on Thursday that challenged the ECP verdict.
Judge Jawad Hassan of the LHC reserved his decision and declared PTI leader Umar Aftab Dhillon’s case inadmissible.
In an attempt to recover his party’s electoral symbol in Punjab, the PTI leader implored the court on Wednesday to reverse the commission’s decision and mandate that it upload the PTI’s certificate for the intra-party poll on its website.
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The petitioner claimed that because intra-party polling was outside the election authority’s jurisdiction, the insignia had been illegally removed. He said that because the ECP was not a court of law, it could not question the validity of appointments made within a party or intra-party elections.
According to the complaint’s lawyer, the PTI candidates were exposed to a number of tactics meant to complicate their situation, such as being forbidden from using the “bat” emblem and from submitting nomination papers at all.
During the debate, the PTI lawyer asserted that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had restored the party’s election insignia. The PHC has not yet determined whether to submit an appeal of the decision. Justice Jawad shot back.
The government’s lawyer decided that the motion was void because the PTI leader had no direct influence.
The PHC upheld the Election Commission’s ruling that the PTI’s intra-party elections were illegal the day before, on December 22.
The ruling means that the PTI loses both its leader and its electoral emblem. Judge Ijaz Khan’s high court single bench overturned the single bench stay decision from December 26 that had allowed the PTI to use the word “bat” as its insignia, delaying the ECP’s decision until January 9.
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