The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took a major blow on Saturday after the Supreme Court annulled the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) January 10 order, depriving the former ruling party of its ‘iconic’ electoral symbol — bat — just days ahead of the general elections.
A three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali — announced the verdict after a day-long hearing.
The apex court’s unanimous verdict came after hours of wait as Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led three-member bench decided to uphold the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) plea.
The election governing body had assailed the PHC verdict declaring the commission’s order “illegal, without any lawful authority and of no legal effect”.
The contention started with the December 22, 2023, decision of the election commission, barring the PTI party from keeping its electoral symbol for the upcoming February 8 elections, citing irregularities in their internal polls that did not comply with the party’s own constitution and election laws.
This prompted the Imran Khan-led party to challenge the revocation of their symbol in the PHC. A single-member judge granted temporary relief, reinstated the bat symbol, and referred the case to a larger bench for a hearing on January 9.
Then, on December 30, the polling body challenged the PHC’s jurisdiction over the matter. However, in a dramatic turn of events, the PHC reversed its earlier decision and upheld the ECP’s order.
Facing the prospect of losing its iconic cricket bat symbol for the upcoming elections, the PTI took its fight to the highest court in the land — the Supreme Court. However, in a strategic move, they later withdrew their appeal, hoping for a favorable outcome from the PHC.
And the PTI did get what it wanted with PHC’s nullification of the ECP decision, but not for long as today’s verdict took away the much-sought-after electoral symbol.
The top court allowed ECP’s petition by setting aside the high court’s ruling, and upheld the December 22 decision of the electoral body.
The five-page verdict stated that the apex court judges “do not agree with the learned judges [of the PHC] that the ECP did not have ‘any jurisdiction to question or adjudicate the intra-party elections of a political party.'”
It stated that accepting any such interpretation would render all provisions in the Election Act, 2017, that require the holding of intra party elections “illusory and of no consequence and be redundant”.
