ISLAMABAD – On Saturday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) submitted a miscellaneous application to the Supreme Court, urging an expedited hearing of its petition challenging the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision on January 3. The PHC’s decision deprived the party of its iconic “bat” election symbol.
The PHC, on January 3, overturned the stay order granted by its single-member bench, reinstating the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) ruling, nullifying the PTI’s intra-party elections, and revoking its election symbol. In response, the PTI has appealed this verdict in the Supreme Court.
Read more : Election 2024: PTI to now Play without Bat Symbol
The PTI’s application calls on the apex court to schedule the hearing of its petition for Monday, emphasizing the urgency and importance of the matter. Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, representing the PTI, stressed the significance of the election symbol, stating that a failure to grant interim relief would exclude the party from the electoral process. This could force candidates to contest using different symbols, potentially bypassing regulations on floor crossing.
The electoral symbol is crucial for voters in identifying their chosen candidate during elections. The absence of a unified symbol could lead to voter confusion, potentially resulting in the loss of votes for the PTI.
Failure to restore the PTI’s electoral symbol would compel the party to participate in elections without its emblematic “bat,” which party leaders consider a significant setback, given its historical use in various polls.
The PHC’s six-page order highlighted that its previous decision had disrupted the smooth electoral process supervised by the ECP. Consequently, the PHC revoked its interim order, directing the ECP to proceed with the election process as per its constitutional mandate.
This legal dispute originated from the ECP’s December 22 ruling, which declared the PTI’s intra-party polls as “illegal” and barred the party from utilizing the ‘bat’ symbol. Despite the PHC’s December 26 suspension of the ECP’s order and the reinstatement of the ‘bat’ symbol, the subsequent January 3 decision compels PTI candidates to contest elections independently.
