Islamabad: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed the electoral body to decide fate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s intra-party election and allocation of ‘bat’ symbol for the general elections by Friday (today).
Now all eyes are set on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the PHC yesterday ordered the election body to decide the case, as per the law.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan apprised the court that his party would not be allotted a bat as the election symbol if the commission did not accept PTI’s intra-party polls. The ECP procrastinated the decision for unknown reasons, he added. The PTI candidates would be considered independent if they were not allotted the election symbol by December 22, he relayed to the court.
The PHC division bench comprising Justice SM Attiq Shah and Justice Shakil Ahmad announced the reserved verdict and disposed of the petition after issuing directions to the ECP to decide on the case.
The PHC had reserved its verdict in the case related to the ECP notice against PTI’s intra-party polls that could jeopardise the party demand for the bat as its election symbol.
“We are well aware of the prevailing situation in the country. The Supreme Court had also ordered for provision of equal opportunities and level playing field to all political parties,” Justice SM Attiq Shah remarked.
Barrister Gohar Khan, at the start of the hearing, informed the court that the party did not approach the Islamabad High Court (IHC) because they feared that their leaders might be arrested.
All the high courts and Supreme Court could issue directives to the federation as they were units of the federation, he added.
He said that the court was well aware of the ground realities as most of the PTI leaders had gone into hiding due to the government crackdown and harassment while there was a biometrics system at the IHC for which the presence of the party leaders was compulsory.
He argued that the procedure of intra-party elections had to be decided by the party itself, not any other forum. He also pleaded that his party was not being provided level playing field and treated indiscriminately.
Justice SM Attiq asked the PTI chairman who made the intra-party elections controversial? Barrister Gohar replied that the person who had lodged the complaint in the ECP was not a member of the party, and he also produced a list of the PTI registered members.
Barrister Gohar said the ECP had issued a notice to the PTI on its intra-party elections while December 22 was the last day for filing nomination papers for general elections.
He said that there was no concept of intra-party elections in the 1962 Political Parties Act. He presented a record that the intra-party elections were directed to be held through secret ballot in 2002. Justice SM Attiq Shah inquired whether they would be given an election symbol before the general elections. To this, Barrister Gohar replied that the ECP had said it would reissue the election symbol for every election and that they were not being issued their election symbol of bat.
He also pleaded that they held intra-party elections and submitted the certificate to the ECP in seven days. However, the ECP had not yet issued their intra-party elections results on its website.
When the bench asked what the harm was of not issuing the party results on the website, Barrister Gohar responded that they would not be allotted their election symbol if the results were not made public by the Commission.
To the court query, the ECP counsel stated that the election results were published on the commission’s website after complete satisfaction about veracity of the polls process and the authenticity of the results.
