ECP moves SC against PHC verdict on PTI intra-party poll, election symbol

ISLAMABAD  –  The Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) yesterday moved the top court against the recent PHC verdict that annulled the ECP’s de­cision to declare PTI’s intra-party polls uncon­stitutional and decided to take back its party symbol bat.

Through the appeal, the ECP prayed to the Supreme Court to de­clare the ruling given by the Peshawar High Court as illegal as PTI did not hold intra-party polls as per law and constitution. Sources said the apex court is­sued diary number to the case. 

Earlier in the day, the Su­preme Court’s (SC) registrar office had returned the top electoral body’s appeal after raising objections. The ECP removed objections from its petition and re-filed the appeal seeking to overrule the Peshawar High Court’s verdict in favour of PTI in­tra-party polls and revival of its iconic electoral symbol.

The electoral body filed an amended plea after expung­ing the documents to which the objections were raised by the top court’s registrar.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will hear the appeal of Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday (today) against resto­ration of ‘cricket bat’ as the election symbol of PTI. 

A three-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Jus­tice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hila­li will hear the case against the verdict of Peshawar High Court (PHC). 

In a related development, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) on Thursday filed a contempt petition against the Election Commission over its failure to comply with the or­der issued on the party’s pe­tition against the ECP deci­sion on its election symbol and intra-party polls.

The PTI contended that de­spite the PHC orders issued a day earlier the ECP failed to upload the certificate on the PTI’s intra-party elections on its website. The petition submitted by the PTI named Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, the ECP secretary, and the commis­sion’s members Justice (retd) Ikram Ullah Khan, Nisar Ah­mad Durrani, Babar Hassan Bharwana, and Shah Muham­mad Jatoi as respondents in the case.

The plea urged the court to punish the respondents as per the law for not comply­ing with the yesterday’s or­ders. The petition stated that the election commission had not “issued the certificate to PTI on its website” despite yesterday’s directives, which amounted to contempt of court. “[…] respondents dis­regarded the order of this honourable court and down­graded the authority of this honourable court,” the pe­tition read. “That omission of respondents to act upon the order of this honourable court speaks of the fact that respondents undermined the authority of this honourable court,” it said.

The plea accused the re­spondents of not “moving an inch” for the implemen­tation of the PHC order and for “willfully disobeyed the same”. It added that the ac­tion of respondents fell with­in the ambit of contempt as respondents ignored the court’s directions. The plea was filed by Advocates Qazi Muhammad Anwar and Shah Faisal Ilyas.

Talking to a media outlet, Advocate Ilyas confirmed that the PHC had accepted and listed the petition for hearing on Friday before a two-judge bench.

“Yesterday the PHC re­stored the ‘bat’ symbol,” he said. “The court in its order directed the ECP to publish the PTI’s certificate on their website,” he said.

Advocate Ilyas concluded that the election commission had failed to carry out the or­ders of the PHC despite the passage of 24 hours.

A day earlier, in a major re­lief ahead of the February 8 general elections, the PHC had declared “illegal” the ECP’s decision to revoke PTI’s iconic ‘bat’ electoral sym­bol and reject its intra-party polls. In the short order, the PHC had termed the ECP or­der as “illegal, without any lawful authority and of no legal effect”. “The ECP is di­rected 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 bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Jus­tice Syed Arshad Ali said in a brief order.

According to the court, the PTI was entitled to the elec­tion symbol “strictly in terms of sections 215 and 217, read with any other enabling pro­vision of the Elections Act 2017 and Election Rules 2017”. On December 22, the election commission had de­cided against letting PTI re­tain its electoral symbol for the general election, saying that it had failed to hold in­tra-party polls as per its pre­vailing constitution and elec­tion laws.