The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to nullify the PTI's intra-party polls and revoke its popular 'cricket bat' symbol.
The court in its order directed the commission to publish the PTI’s certificate on its website and restore the electoral symbol of the party.
"As elections are scheduled to be held on 8th February, 2024 and last date for allotment of election symbols is 13th January, 2024, so keeping in view the urgency that a political party has been denuded of its symbol, meaning thereby that aspirants from the general public who were willing to vote for the petitioners' party were divested of their right to vote as per their choice,” it added.
The court directed that notices should be issued to all the respondents for January 9 next year and the order would remain operative until then.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said he had filed the petition in the high court after consulting the founding chief of the party and former premier Imran Khan in Adiala jail.
Imran is currently incarcerated there in connection with the £190 million settlement and Toshakhana cases.
He was granted bail in the cipher case after the Supreme Court's intervention last week.
The hearing at the PHC, which subsequently restored the PTI’s electoral symbol, was presided over by Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel while the party’s chairman and its lawyer Ali Zafar presented their arguments.
Barrister Zafar argued that the ECP had acted outside of its authority.
“The commission asked [the PTI] to conduct its internal elections within 20 days and we held them, but then the ECP invalidated them on December 22,” he informed the court.
He further told the court that the PTI had conducted its intra-party elections on December 2 which were covered by the media and also provided all the required documents to the electoral body.
“The election commission said the intra-party polls were conducted properly, but raised an objection over the appointment of the person who conducted them,” he added.
He further elaborated that because of the ECP’s ruling, the PTI could not contest in the upcoming general elections as a party.
The PTI’s counsel contended that the electoral body’s ruling had violated Article 17.
“Article 17 also states that every citizen has the right to create a party,” Barrister Zafar told the court.
Justice Miankhel told the PTI lawyer that he had not read the ECP’s decision and only the part where it was written that the appointment of the person conducting the internal elections was incorrect.
“That is exactly what the election commission has written," Barrister Zafar told the judge.
The lawyer reiterated that the electoral body did not have the authority to declare the intra-party elections invalid.
"The electoral symbol is a fundamental right that has been taken away from us,” he continued.
Justice Miankhel then asked the PTI’s counsel who was the petitioner in the case and who had been mentioned in the decision of the ECP.
“The person who filed the petition is not even a member of the PTI,” Barrister Zafar replied, maintaining that the ECP had become a party to this case itself.
The lawyer told the court that the ECP had nowhere stated in its decision that the procedure of the intra-party polls was incorrect.
He contended that such grounds did not merit the invalidation of the intra-party polls.
“If anyone has an objection, then they could file a case in a court,” he argued, adding that the law and the Constitution stated that the commission did not have this authority.
Justice Miankhel then inquired about the PTI’s rules about its intra-party polls.
Barrister Zafar replied that the party had its own rules. “The chairman and the general secretary are nominated through a secret ballot,” he continued.
The lawyer for the respondent, who had challenged the intra-party polls, interrupted the hearing at this point. The court told him to wait for his turn.
The judge told him that if there had been a violation, then the court would ask him if the ECP had the authority to nullify the polls.
Moving back to Barrister Zafar’s arguments, the court asked him when the PTI’s last internal elections were held.
The PTI's counsel replied that the last internal elections were held in 2017, and the party amended its constitution in 2019.
“In June 2023, we held the intra-party elections according to the new constitution,” he told the court.
“Then the election commission declared the elections null and void and we were instructed to conduct the polls within 20 days,” he added.
The lawyer argued that the election schedule had now been released and the nomination papers had been submitted.
“There are specific seats in the elections. If the party does not have a symbol, then what will happen to it?” he asked.
He asked the court that the PTI should be allotted an electoral symbol so that it could issue party tickets to its candidates.
Barrister Zafar pleaded that until the court passed its judgement on this case, the ruling of the ECP should be suspended so that the PTI could have an electoral symbol.
The court asked the lawyer if he had any document about when former PTI leader Asad Umar quit the party.
Barrister Zafar replied that Umar was arrested and when he was released, he resigned from all party posts, adding that the media had covered it.
The respondent’s lawyers argued that the PTI had filed an application against the ECP’s notice, preventing the commission from finalising its decision.
The judge told them to leave that matter now. “It has already happened,” he added.
One of the lawyers then said he had filed an application in the Lahore High Court.
To this, the judge observed that the LHC would look into that and he should respond to the queries of this court.
Justice Miankhel remarked that the ECP had asked the PTI for its internal elections in 20 days and it conducted them.
The judge noted that when a political party conducted its internal polls, then it only had to submit a certificate to the ECP.
The respondent’s lawyer informed the court that in exactly seven days, the party had to submit the certificate to the ECP.
The judge told him that had he not come today, the court would have provided the PTI with temporary relief.
“Now that you are here, we will listen to your arguments,” Justice Miankhel observed, adding that it seemed like “attempts were being made to push the party [PTI] out of the general elections”.
During the proceedings, Additional Attorney General (AAG) Sanaullah Khan was asked how many political parties were there in Pakistan.
The AAG replied with a figure of 175.
The AAG informed the court that the ECP had the authority to declare the intra-party polls invalid if complete documents were not provided to it.
However, Justice Miankhel observed that the party had been a part of the 2018 general elections, making it a registered party.
“If a party is registered, conducted [internal] polls and has provided a certificate, then how can they say that this is not right," Justice Miankhel observed, adding that the court expected the ECP to conduct fair and transparent elections.
The AAG maintained that nobody could claim that the ECP was controversial. As the hearing concluded, the AGG informed the court that electoral symbols would be allotted on January 13.
In a strange twist a day earlier, the ECP faced conflicting assertions after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) chief Pervez Khattak stirred the political pot by claiming that he had been "offered" the ‘cricket bat’ symbol ahead of the upcoming elections.
The claims raised alarms among observers and the supporters of the PTI, speculating that the ECP's action to withdraw the symbol – amid concerns that the party was being limped by ‘manipulation’ – suggested a potential handover to the splinter group.
However, the ECP swiftly countered these claims, with a spokesperson clarifying that the commission had not offered the symbol to Khattak or anyone else.
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