Pakistan’s Supreme Court has declared null and void the intra-party polls of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and stripped the party of the ‘bat” as its election symbol, putting an end to the row over the iconic electoral symbol. This decision is being decried as a death sentence for a “free and fair election,” slated to be held next month.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had challenged the verdict of the two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which on Wednesday restored the cricket bat as the electoral symbol of the PTI party. A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa heard the ECP’s petition and reserved its judgment after the hearing, which was announced late Saturday night.
The top Pak court announced to “set aside the PHC judgment and restore the ECP judgment” that had invalidated the PTI intra-party elections and deprived the party of the ‘bat’ as its symbol. The dispute over the election symbol started on December 22 when the ECP stripped the party of its electoral symbol for the February 8 election by rejecting its intra-party polls. The party moved the high court in Peshawar which through an interim order on December 26 suspended the ECP ruling. However, the decision was challenged by the election body and the high court reversed its ruling on January 3.
The court also announced that a two-member panel of judges would take up the issue of the PTI bat symbol for hearing. The panel issued its verdict restoring the ‘bat’ as a symbol of the PTI but the ECP challenged it in the apex court. Bat is a traditional symbol of the PTI and it is believed that by depriving the party of its iconic symbol, its candidates would have to contest on separate symbols, creating confusion among the party supporters in remote areas on the day of elections.
Without a common symbol, it was argued that PTI would not get its share in the reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies which are divided into parties based on proportional representation of seats they won in the elections. PTI’s Ali Zafar said history will judge the verdict of the top court but its immediate impact is that the PTI candidate would have to contest without a common symbol. The court has taken away the symbol but the party is still a registered entity. As per our policy, all our candidates will contest as independent candidates,” he said.
The ECP has barred returning officers (ROs) from allotting election symbols of a party to the candidates of another party. The orders were issued on Saturday to counter PTI’s plan to forge an alliance with its splinter group, PTI-Nazriati (PTI-N), and use the ‘batsman’ for its candidates. PTI’s Shoaib Shaheen submitted a request to the ECP to accept PTI-N’s tickets awarded to his party’s candidates. The plea said that PTI’s candidates were facing troubles in filing PTI-N tickets and urged the ECP to give instructions to the returning officers.
Top PTI sources argue that Justice Qazi Isa’s decision undermines the democratic process and accuses the judiciary of favouring powerful interests. “Supreme Court has effectively killed any hopes for a free and fair election next month. Now the verdict is out for Nawaz Sharif. This is gross injustice and killing of fundamental rights of any political party. Justice Qazi Isa has gone against the will of the people and the army won,” they said.
The verdict’s impact on the party’s electoral prospects remains uncertain, with the situation casting a shadow over the democratic principles. As the political landscape evolves, attention now turns to the fate of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, with implications for the broader political climate in the country.
(With agency inputs)
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