Peshawar : Pakistan Tehreek- e – Insaf (PTI) lost its fight at Peshawar High Court (PHC) which on Wednesday upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision to strip off Imran Khan’s party of bat as its electoral symbol.
ECP had challenge PHC’s single judge decision of overturning its decision of taking back symbol of bat from PTI. ECP had declared PTI inter-party as unlawful and took bat from it as its electoral symbol . PHC decision had also received sharp reaction from other political parties . Many top political leaders had accused the PHC judge decision of favouring PTI unlawfully as what they alleged ‘”the judge ‘s relatives were contesting elections on PTI tickets ‘.
ECP had appealed against the decision in PHC and pleaded to review original decision . PHC justice Ejaz Khan had geared the parties and reserved the judgement . Later, the court announced the judge wherein it upheld ECP plea and canceled the earlier decision . PHC’s Wednesday decision has stripped PTI of its claim to get bat as its electoral symbol. PTI announced to challenge the decision of PHC in the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).
PTI has dim chances of getting relief from apex court as ECP has legal authority to withdraw its symbol if its convinced that any political party did not held inter party elections in accordance with Election Act 2017. ECP had taken electoral symbol of many political parties back in the past as well . Pakistan People Party (PPP) is an example for ready reference. It lost its sword as electoral symbol in the past.
Azeem Chaudhary a senior journalist and political analyst, believes PTI ‘s game for getting bat as its electoral symbol is over and now its candidates have to go for February 8, 2024 elections as independent . Azeem Chaudhary knows well that PTI’s legal case for bat is very weak and its using legal battle for bat to gain sympathy of its like-minded voters for February 2024 elections .