LAHORE/ISLAMABAD - The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed a petition, challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) order of declaring intra-party elections of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) unconstitutional and revoking the party’s election symbol ‘bat’.
The court held that the petition was not maintainable at this stage in the light of the Supreme Court judgements and pendency of identical matters before different benches of the Peshawar High Court.
Justice Jawad Hassan announced the reserved verdict on a petition, filed by Chaudhry Umar Aftab Dhillu, Sheikhupura District PTI president, and others. The court had reserved the verdict after hearing arguments of the parties a day earlier.
In his arguments, the petitioners’ counsel had argued that the PTI intraparty elections were held in accordance with the party constitution, and all required documents were submitted to the ECP as per the Elections Act. However, the ECP declared the appointments of the PTI officials as void and also revoked the party’s election symbol ‘bat’, he added.
He submitted that there was no justification to declare the intra- party elections as void and revoking the party’s election symbol. He termed the ECP order discriminatory and pleaded with the court to set aside the order after declaring it illegal. However, a federal law officer submitted that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioners did not have any locus standi in view of pendency of identical matter in the Peshawar High Court. He further submitted that the ECP orders were in accordance with the Elections Act and rules framed under it.
A provincial law officer also objected to maintainability of the petition.
The PTI on Thursday approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to restore an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruling revoking the party’s ‘bat’ electoral symbol over discrepancies in holding intra-party elections.
The petition has been fixed for hearing for tomorrow (Friday). On December 22, the ECP had stripped the party of its electoral symbol for the February 8 election, saying that it had had failed to hold intra-party polls — which saw Barrister Gohar Khan becoming the PTI chairman — in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws. The PTI had approached the PHC against the decision of the ECP and on Dec 26, a single-member bench of the high court ordered a temporary suspension of the ECP’s decision, instructing the commission to publish PTI’s intra-party poll certificate on its website and restore the party’s election symbol ‘bat’. That order had to remain in effect till Jan 9.
Subsequently, the ECP had filed an intra-court appeal in the PHC against the verdict. The commission’s lawyers argued that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction by suspending the commission’s declaration on PTI’s intra-party polls and the subsequent revocation of its election symbol.
A day earlier, the PHC had accepted the commission’s review plea and decided that the high court’s interim order on Dec 26 was an “ex parte order” as the same was passed without providing any opportunity for a hearing to the commission.
The petition stated that ECP did not have the jurisdiction to challenge the “internal appointments” of PTI officials or set aside the party’s intra-party elections and declare them void. The petition said the ECP was not a “court of law”, reiterating that it could not question the appointments made by a political party or examine the validity of intra-party polls.
The petition said that “perusal of Election Act 2017 showed that political parties are fully empowered to run their affairs and no role of interference of ECP has been envisaged in these provisions at all”.
“That it is vehemently submitted that PTI has been discriminated against all other political parties who follow less onerous political processes of holding intra-party elections in accordance with their own constitutions,” it said.