The Peshawar High Court (PHC) Wednesday restored the “bat” symbol for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which means Imran Khan’s party can now contest the polls with its iconic symbol on February 8 elections. The court said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) made an incorrect decision by revoking the PTI’s bat symbol.
The court ordered the ECP to issue a certificate to the PTI and suspended the decision which stripped the PTI of its symbol. “PTI is a political party entitled to an election symbol,” the panel of judges led by justices Ijaz Anwar and Arshad Ali said.
In December 2023, a five-member ECP bench, led by chief election commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, denounced the PTI intra-party polls as “unconstitutional” and revoked their “bat” as an electoral symbol ahead of the February 8 general elections.
The election commission that time insisted the democratic process must be followed within political parties and said PTI’s failure to conduct intra-party elections as mandated by the constitution led them to arrive at the decision to withdraw the party’s bat symbol as it ‘deviated from the established democratic norms’.
PTI senator Ali Zafar expressed confidence ahead of the elections and said that no one can stop the party from winning elections. “Now, no one can stop PTI from winning these elections. Court has ordered to restore PTI’s bat symbol and upload intra-party polls results on its website immediately,” he said, according to Pakistani news outlet Samaa.
During the court proceedings, PTI’s lawyers told the court that the ECP wanted to end the party and said that its main concern was not intra-party elections. They lamented that the electoral watchdog became an ‘enemy’ of PTI.
“The entire nation was praying and waiting for this verdict. Today we thank them for their support,” PTI’s legal team said.
Senator Zafar said that if the ECP now fails to restore the ‘bat’ symbol on its website within 15 minutes of the passing of the verdict, it would be construed as contempt of court. “Neither the court nor the nation would tolerate this,” Zafar was quoted as saying by The Dawn.
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