CJP Isa-led bench to hear PTI’s plea seeking bat its electoral symbol

ISLAMABAD-The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan constituted a three-member bench to hear Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) plea against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision, leading to the revocation of the party’s electoral symbol, ‘bat’, ARY News reported.

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Esa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali will hear the PTI’s plea, seeking restoration of ‘bat’ as its electoral symbol.

Earlier, Hamid Khan requested the court to fix the hearing at the earliest.

Earlier on January 4, the PTI  approached the apex court against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict, which restored the ECP order, leading to the revocation of the party’s electoral symbol ’bat’.

ECP verdict

On December 2, the ECP had nullified PTI’s intra-party elections, for the third time since last year, declaring the party ineligible for obtaining its traditional electoral symbol of ‘bat’.

In its verdict, the ECP said, “So keeping in view the clear mandate of Elections Act 2017 – it is held that PTI has not complied with our directions rendered therein order dated 23rd November, 2023 and failed to hold intra-party election in accordance with PTI prevailing Constitution 2019 and Elections Act 2017, and Election Rules, 2017. Therefore, the certificate dated 4th December, 2023 and Form-65 filed by the alleged chairman, is hereby regretted and rejected accordingly”.

Later,  PTI challenged the ECP verdict in the PHC that suspended the ECP order and restored ‘bat’ as PTI’s symbol on December 26. Subsequently, the ECP submitted a review decision before the PHC and it restored the ECP decision.

PTI’s intraparty elections

PTI’s intraparty elections, in which Barrister Gohar Khan was elected as chairman of the party, were held on December 2.

The polls had drawn a sharp criticism as estranged PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar announced that he would challenge the entire process.

He had alleged that the PTI had carried out a selection process aimed at throwing out party workers to give the reins to a few lawyers.