PTI set to challenge ECP verdict to regain electoral symbol
Pakistan
Gohar says party will move either Supreme Court or high court on Tuesday
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is set to move court on Tuesday [Dec 26] against the decision given by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the petitions challenging the PTI intra-party elections, party leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has said.
Interacting with media outside Adiala Jail on Saturday, Barrister Gohar called the revocation of PTI’s electoral symbol of ‘bat’ a part of conspiracy.
While rejecting the ECP verdict, Gohar asserted that the PTI would regain its electoral symbol.
The PTI, he said, could challenge the ECP verdict either in the Supreme Court under Article 184 of the constitution or in the high court. “Both options are available.”
Gohar requested courts to take up PTI’s appeal on a priority as soon as it was filed. He expressed confidence and hope that the court would grant relief by ordering the restoration of PTI’s electoral symbol.
But the ECP had yet to provide the PTI with certified copies of the verdict, he added.
According to Gohar, the incarcerated PTI founder has instructed the team to challenge the ECP decision in court.
He said they had completed their consultations and were ready to move court on Tuesday, Dec 26, but added that it was yet to be decided whether to challenge the ECP verdict in the Supreme Court or a high court.
It is important to note here that after the ECP invalidated PTI's intra-party polls on Friday, all positions within the party ceased to exist.
But Gohar, who also ceased to be the party’s new chairman, categorically stated that the PTI would be run the way it was being run before.
Read also: SC rejects PTI founder's plea for IHC verdict suspension in Toshakhana case
Gohar also voiced concerns about the fairness and transparency of the upcoming general elections slated for Feb 8 next year, saying that anarchy would prevail in the country if the ballot was skewed.
The PTI, he said, was a strong advocate of free and fair elections, adding that the snatching of the electoral symbol of a political group would be detrimental to democracy.
Even though the ECP recently issued instructions to the caretakers, four provincial election commissioners, chief secretaries and IGPs, Gohar complained PTI’s election candidates were facing obstacles in filing their nomination papers.
ECP VERDICT
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday declared the intra-party elections conducted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) null and void, withdrawing the party's electoral symbol – bat.
The electoral watchdog ruled that the party did not hold the elections in line with its constitution, the Election Act, 2017, and the Election Rules, 2017, and was thus ineligible to obtain the election symbol of ‘bat’.
Read more: PTI loses electoral symbol 'bat' as ECP voids intra-party polls
A five-member bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, gave the decision on the petitions challenging PTI’s intra-party elections.
The reserved verdict was announced a day after the Peshawar High Court directed the ECP to decide the petitions filed against PTI’s intra-party elections in accordance with the law.
