PML-N terms PHC decision an attack on ECP

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday rejected the decision of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) regarding restoration of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) election symbol of ‘bat’, calling it an attack on the authority of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Speaking in Karachi, PML-N President and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif termed the PHC decision earlier this week “pre-poll rigging that reeks of partisanship”. He said the ECP had given a fact-based decision over the “irregularities and rigging” in the PTI’s intra-party elections.

“The PHC decision is an attack on the jurisdiction and authority of the Election Commission,” Shehbaz said, while addressing party workers during a ceremony at a private hotel in Karachi. “How a provincial court can overrule a national-level body such as the Election Commission of Pakistan?”

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On Tuesday, the PHC had suspended the ECP decision of nullifying the PTI’s intra-party elections held earlier this month and revoking its popular ‘cricket bat’ electoral symbol. The court also directed the EPC to publish the PTI’s certificate on its website.

Shehbaz remarked that the PTI was being handed an advantage “through this pre-poll rigging, just the way RTS [Results Transmission System] snatched away the mandate of the political parties, including PML-N’s mandate in Punjab overnight in the 2018 elections”.

He added that the judge who gave the decision should have recused from the case, keeping in view that certain candidates, contesting the coming elections were related to him. “The PML-N is absolutely ready for the February 8th elections, but it will not accept any such pre-poll rigging,” he added.

The former prime minister termed the PHC decision “an extremely sensitive matter” that raised many questions. The people of Pakistan, he said, expected justice from the judiciary but “such decisions reek of partisanship and tilt the scale in favour of a blue-eyed person of certain individuals of the judiciary”.

In remarks, the referred to PTI founder Imran Khan, Shehbaz said that “this blue-eyed boy” wrecked Pakistan’s economy, foreign-relations, institutions, and drove the country to the brink of bankruptcy, adding that the coalition government saved the country from the horrible nightmare of bankruptcy.

Earlier, Shehbaz welcomed several notable politicians from Sindh to the party-fold. On the occasion, he said that those politicians joined the PML-N because they trusted the leadership of Nawaz Sharif. He assured the leaders that the PML-N would serve the people in the best possibly way.

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The PML-N president expressed gratitude to the party workers for according him a warm welcome upon his arrival in Karachi. He said he was positive that the wave of political notables from Sindh joining the PML-N would propel the party towards electoral success in Sindh.

Commenting on the PHC decision, PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam also said that the PHC decision legitimised fake and fraudulent intra-party elections. “There were no voters, no voter lists, no election commissioner, no permission to fight elections, yet everything is deemed lawful,” she alleged.

“Those complaining about the absence of a level-playing field in elections don’t even believe in granting a level-playing field to their own party leaders in their intra-party elections. The history of attempting to sabotage the elections, like the RTS in 2018, has been revisited,” she added.