ISLAMABAD
\nEmbattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday filed a miscellaneous application in the Supreme Court, seeking an early hearing of its petition challenging the January 3 order of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which stripped the party of its iconic election symbol of a \u201cbat\u201d.
\nOn January 3, PHC revoked the stay order granted by its single-member bench, restoring the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) decision to declare PTI intra-party polls null and void and stripping it of its election symbol. The PTI, however, challenged the verdict in the top court.
\nIn its miscellaneous plea, the PTI urged to top court to fix its petition for hearing on Monday \u201cin the interest of justice\u201d.
\nIn support of his plea, PTI\u2019s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan stated: \u201cThis is an election matter and involves election symbol of a political party.\u201d
\n\u201cIf interim relief is not taken up and heard, the applicant would be out of the process and all its candidates would contest under separate symbols and after all they may not be subject to floor crossing law which would lead to corruption. Moreover, the applicant will have no share out of the 227 reserved seats.\u201d
\nThe electoral symbol is crucial to any political party as voters are aware of which candidate to vote for on the polling day; however, if PTI does not have a unified symbol, it might lose votes due to confusion among the people.
\nIf the top court does not restore the PTI\u2019s electoral symbol, it will have to play the election innings without the bat, with its leaders calling it a \u201cmajor setback\u201d to the party as it has been contested on the sign in several polls.
\nIt is pertinent to mention here that the PHC, in its six-page order noted that its earlier verdict had \u201cprima facie created hindrance in the smooth process of the election which Is to be conducted by the ECP\u201d.
\n\u201c…the interim order of this court passed in favour of the PTI is hereby recalled and consequently the Election Commission of Pakistan is directed to proceed with the election process as per its constitutional mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday filed a miscellaneous application in the Supreme Court, seeking an early hearing of its petition challenging the January 3 order of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which stripped the party of its iconic election symbol of a \u201cbat\u201d. On January 3, PHC revoked the stay order granted by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n