LHC dismisses PTI’s plea seeking restoration of election symbol

Court observes matter already pending with PHC, parallel forums hearing same plea can result in conflicting opinions

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed on Thursday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) plea challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to revoke the party’s popular electoral symbol, the ‘cricket bat’

Announcing the decision reserved a day earlier, Justice Jawad Hasan declared the petition non-maintainable.

Justice Jawad observed that the Peshawar High Court (PHC), through its order, passed in a writ petition, dated December 26, 2023, has already taken up the same matter and suspended the ECP’s decision. The order maintained that the matter was still pending adjudication there.

“In these circumstances, agitating the same matter before two parallel forums may result in conflicting opinions thereby undermining the judicial process, besides resulting in multiplicity of litigation that may result in delaying the elections,” the LHC’s order stated.

The high court further added that, “Such an endeavour indicates an attempt to undermine the judicial process by sidestepping the express directions given by the Supreme Court in the Supreme Court Bar Association Case.”

“It has been learnt that when the learned counsel for the petitioners, when confronted with the question whether the petitioners have challenged vires of Section 215(5) of the Act read with Article 17 of the Constitution, he replied that the same has been challenged before the Peshawar High Court,” the order stated.

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“It is well settled that the fundamental rights of freedom of association under Article 17 of the Constitution is subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law as held in Suo Motu Case No.7 of 2017 (PLD 2019 Supreme Court 318). Pertinently, the matter is pending before the Peshawar High Court, Peshawar which has already taken the cognizance of the matter under the provisions mentioned under Chapter XI and XII of the Act will be interpreted by the competent court,” it further adds.

Justice Jawad observed that “in view of the aforesaid, the relief claimed by the petitioners cannot be granted without declaring the said provisions of the Act ultra vires Article 17 of the Constitution. Even otherwise, it is a well settled principle of law that when vires of law is challenged, interim relief cannot be granted”.

PTI moves SC

Earlier today, the PTI approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) restoration of the electoral watchdog’s decision nullifying the party’s intra-party polls, and subsequently revoking the cricket bat as its electoral symbol.

Filed by party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the plea seeks to have the PHC’s interim order annulled.

The appeal maintains that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) application was not admissible in the case, adding that the electoral watchdog cannot be a party to the case. It argues that the ECP’s decision was not backed by evidence.