PTI bat symbol: PHC restores ECP decision

Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) Wednesday restored the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) intra-party election and election symbol case and withdrew the injunction.

According to the details, Justice Ejaz Khan of Peshawar High Court is hearing the Election Commission's review appeal against the court decision, in which the ECP lawyer and Tehreek-e-Insaf's senior lawyer Qazi Anwar Advocate appeared in the court.

At the beginning of the hearing, PTI's lawyer Qazi Anwar asked whether the Election Commission can come to court against the decision of the High Court, their writ is not correct. The decision came on December 26, it has not yet been implemented. The ECP has not yet issued the intra-party election certificate on the website.

Justice Ejaz inquired whether there was any contempt of court case on your behalf.

On this, Qazi Anwar replied: “The nomination papers of our candidates were rejected, what the Election Commission did”.

He inquired what is the problem with the Election Commission for uploading a website certificate, putting one party aside is not good for the Election Commission and democracy. The ECP should not have been used against a political party, we want the Election Commission to conduct transparent elections.

After the arguments of the parties were completed, the court reserved its decision on the review appeal of the Election Commission.

It is pertinent to note that the ECP had annulled the intra-party election of PTI as against the constitution, after which PTI was stripped of its bat symbol. However, Tehreek-e-Insaf challenged the commission's decision in the Peshawar High Court.

The PHC restored the election symbol of PTI, suspending the decision of ECP against PTI’s symbol ‘bat’.

The Election Commission has filed a review appeal in the same court against the decision of the Peshawar High Court.