LHC rejects plea seeking restoration of bat as PTI’s election symbol

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday rejected the plea of a PTI activist seeking the restoration of bat as its election symbol for being not maintainable.

The court during previous hearing of the petition had reserved its verdict challenging the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) refusing to issue its electoral symbol of bat.

The court in its verdict issued on Thursday said it could not interfere in a matter which was under consideration of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court. The court said that under the Election Act, 2017, the election commission could give its verdict on intra-party elections.

The court further said that the commission was empowered to withdraw election symbol of a party if it was not satisfied with the intra-party elections.

The petitioner through his counsel argued that the election commissioner of Punjab was showing disrespect towards the decision of Peshawar High Court (PHC).

He said the court like the PHC could issue the order for the provincial election commissioner for issuance of the party symbol. The court questioned whether the provincial election commissioner could go against the decision of its chief election commissioner.

The PTI’s counsel contended that the party’s candidates were being harassed by the authorities. “First, they were stopped from submitting their nomination papers, and now the election symbol has been robbed from the party.” The law officer however said the petition is not maintainable as the same was not filed by the PTI. He also said the petitioner has no locus standi as he is not an aggrieved person.

He said the petitioner has filed the petition in its own capacity and hence not admissible. He also said that the federal government was not made a party in the petition while the Supreme Court had clearly warned against interference in election process.

He, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the petition for being not maintainable.

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday had accepted the plea of the ECP and withdrawn its previous stay order against the ECP verdict annulling the PTI’s intra-party polls and subsequently withdrawing its election symbol of bat.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024