PESHAWAR: Barrister Ali Zafar, representing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), informed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday that the elections for his party were carried out in compliance with the Constitution.
During the hearing of the PTI’s writ case, which challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) ruling declaring the intra-party election null and void and revoking their symbol, “bat,” which represents the party’s founder, Imran Khan, playing cricket, Barrister Zafar made his point.
In response to a petition from a former PTI member named Akbar S. Babar, the electoral watchdog last month stripped the once-dominant party of its iconic electoral symbol and ruled that the elections were not held in accordance with the rules, dealing a serious blow to the once-dominant party.
In a significant relief, the party successfully contested the ruling and obtained a stay of the ECP order, allowing the party to once again use its bat emblem until the petition’s outcome was determined.
The court scheduled today, January 9, for the double bench hearing of the suit, provided ECP with a notice, and instructed the organization to upload certificates documenting PTI intra-party elections on its website.
But on December 30, the election watchdog filed a review appeal in the high court, and the court removed the PTI’s temporary respite and reinstated the ECP’s December 22 judgment.
Due to this, the party filed a motion with the Supreme Court to overturn the reinstatement of the ECP verdict. The case is scheduled for hearing in January.
