ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has fixed for hearing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s plea seeking restoration of ‘bat’ as its election symbol on January 10.
On January 4, the PTI had approached the apex court against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict, restoring the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s order, leading to revocation of the party’s electoral symbol, ‘bat’. The plea was fixed for hearing during the hearing of PTI’s plea for level playing field today (Monday).
During the Monday’s proceedings, PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen pleaded with the Court to hear the ‘bat’ symbol case any time Monday, as the Peshawar High Court is scheduled to take up the same plea tomorrow.
After being summoned by the CJP, Hamid Khan reached the courtroom and pleaded for hearing of the ‘bat’ symbol case same day. “We cannot hear this case today as there are many other important pleas already scheduled for hearing in the day,” the top judge remarked. Khan then requested the court to fix the hearing for January 10.
ECP verdict
On December 2, the electoral body had nullified PTI’s intra-party elections, for the third time since last year, declaring the PTI ineligible for obtaining its iconic 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”.
PTI had challenged the ECP verdict in the Peshawar High Court. PTI’s intraparty elections, in which Barrister Gohar Khan was elected as chairman of the party, were held in Peshawar on December 2.
