PESHAWAR: PTI petitions PHC to hold ECP in contempt for failing to carry out the directive in the “bat” matter.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was the target of a motion made by the PTI on Thursday to hold the court in contempt over the electoral watchdog’s refusal to follow its orders in the “bat” symbol case.
A day prior, the PHC had deemed the ECP’s decision to withdraw the PTI’s recognizable “bat” electoral emblem and reject its internal polls “illegal,” which was a significant relief ahead of the general elections on February 8.
The PHC had declared the ECP order to be “illegal, without any lawful authority and of no legal effect” in a brief order.
In a succinct ruling, the bench made up of Justices Syed Arshad Ali and Ijaz Anwar ordered the ECP “to forthwith publish the certificate [of intra-party polls] filed by the petitioner on its website in terms of section 209 of the Elections Act, 2017.”The Elections Act of 2017 and Election Rules of 2017 allow the PTI to use the election emblem “strictly in terms of sections 215 and 217, read with any other enabling provision,” the court ruled.
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The Election Commission ruled on December 22 that PTI could not keep its electoral symbol for the general election since the party had not conducted intra-party votes in accordance with the current constitution and election laws.
After that, on December 26, the PTI filed a petition with the PHC challenging the ECP order. A single-member judge granted the party’s request to use its electoral symbol till January 9 and ordered that the matter be scheduled before a divisional bench.
The election watchdog claimed that the court had overreached its authority in a review application it had filed in the PHC on December 30. A few days later, the high court removed the stay on the ECP order, dealing the PTI a serious setback and depriving the party of its symbol once more.
As a result, the PTI petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the reinstatement of the ECP decision. But yesterday, the party withdrew the appeal because the PHC was already hearing the case and had already handed down the “bat.”
