PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against a Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict that nullified the election body’s decision to declare PTI’s intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and stripped the party of its iconic image. bat election symbol.
“The decision of the Peshawar High Court should be declared illegal. The PTI did not hold internal party elections as per the Election Act,” the ECP said in its plea submitted to the apex court.
The petition comes after sources told that the ECP has held a meeting to review the PHC decision. Sources said that options were reviewed in the meeting whether to approach the Supreme Court against the PHC’s decision or not.
PTI files contempt plea against ECP in PHC
A minute before filing the case in the apex court, the PTI filed a contempt of court case against the ECP for not complying with an order issued at the party’s request against the election watchdog’s decision on its election symbol and intra-party polls.
In its petition, the PTI alleged that despite the PHC orders issued a day earlier, the ECP had not uploaded PTI’s intra-party election certificate on its website. He added that failure to do so would be held in contempt of court.
The party has named Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, ECP members and secretary as respondents in the case.
Earlier today, PTI Chief Election Commissioner Niazullah Niazi personally submitted a certified copy of the PHC decision to the ECP.
Verdict of the PHC
A day earlier, a two-judge PHC bench comprising Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali announced the short order on a petition jointly filed by PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan and six other party leaders, asking the court to declare the ECP’s order. as illegal and without jurisdiction.
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The order said the ECP’s December 22, 2023 decision was “illegal, without any statutory authority and without legal effect”.
The court ordered the ECP to publish on its website the certificate submitted by PTI after conducting internal party polls.
“It is further held and declared that the PLO is entitled to an election symbol strictly within the meaning of Sections 215 and 217 as amended with any other enabling provision of the Elections Act 2017 and the Election Rules 2017,” the resolution reads.
After the verdict, the ECP held a brief advisory meeting on the situation arising from the restoration of the ‘bat’ symbol for the PTI.
Sources in the commission told The News that certain legal and constitutional aspects of the matter were discussed during the meeting.
Fittingly, the time constraint is a real challenge as the Returning Officers (ROs) are scheduled to allot poll symbols on January 13 to the contesting candidates who were sent the list of symbols on Tuesday and the list did not contain more than a dozen symbols. , including “bat”.
