The Peshawar High Court (PHC) is currently hearing the PTI\u2019s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s order revoking the party\u2019s \u2018bat\u2019 electoral symbol and declaring its intra-party polls \u201cunconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n
The hearing is taking place shortly after the party withdrew from the Supreme Court its appeal seeking the restoration of its electoral symbol. Speaking to the media outside the court, PTI leader Barrister Gohar said that the case in the PHC was heard all day yesterday and the hearing had been adjourned till today.<\/p>\n
He said the PHC had stated that today, likely before 11am, an order would be issued.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping this in mind, the petition we had filed in the SC against the [PHC\u2019s] interim order became infructuous [\u2026] Because the verdict in the main case is expected at any time today [\u2026] we have withdrawn the plea from the SC,\u201d Gohar said.<\/p>\n
He said that the PHC would issue the final verdict, saying, \u201cWe hope that the verdict will be based on justice and rights and that we will get the \u2018bat\u2019 symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n
On December 22, the Election Commission of Pakistan had decided against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the February 8 election, saying that it had failed to hold intra-party polls in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws.<\/p>\n
The PTI had approached the PHC against the ECP order on Dec 26 and a single-member bench restored the electoral symbol of the party till January 9.<\/p>\n
On Dec 30, the electoral watchdog had filed a review petition in the PHC, arguing that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. Days later, in a major blow for the PTI, the high court had restored the ECP order, stripping the party of its symbol again. Subsequently, the PTI moved the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling.<\/p>\n
A day earlier, PTI counsel Barrister Ali Zafar had argued before the PHC that the electoral watchdog was \u201conly a record keeper\u201d and did not have the power to \u201csnatch a party\u2019s electoral symbol\u201d.<\/p>\n
After marathon arguments advanced by lawyers representing the PTI and the ECP for almost five hours, the bench had adjo\u00adu\u00adrned the hearing till today.<\/p>\n
PHC\u2019s Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali presided over today\u2019s hearing, where counsels of those challenging the PTI\u2019s intra-party polls were to present their arguments.<\/p>\n
The 15 respondents in the case comprise the ECP, Akbar S. Babar, Noureen Farooq Khan, Raja Tahir Nawaz Abbasi, Mehmood Ahmed Khan, Advocate Sabah Zahid, Raja Hamid Zaman Kiani, Muhammad Shah Fahad, Muhammad Muzammil Sandhu, Yousaf Ali, Bilal Azhar Rana, Jehangir Khan, Sardar Niaz Ahmad, Talib Hussain alias Chaudhry Tanveer and Shahid Yaqoob.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) is currently hearing the PTI\u2019s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s order revoking the party\u2019s \u2018bat\u2019 electoral symbol and declaring its intra-party polls \u201cunconstitutional\u201d. The hearing is taking place shortly after the party withdrew from the Supreme Court its appeal seeking the restoration of its electoral symbol. Speaking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n