ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party announced on Saturday it would challenge the country’s election regulator’s decision of taking back its election symbol, a cricket bat, in a court on Tuesday, hoping the judiciary would restore it back to the party.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the decision after a disgruntled PTI leader, Akbar S. Babar, challenged the PTI’s intraparty elections held on Dec. 2 and urged the watchdog to declare the exercise null and void for violating rules. Babar said the PTI had neither displayed a final list of candidates nor was any paperwork done for the polls.
Last month, the ECP declared the PTI’s intraparty elections in June 2022 as invalid, giving the party 20 days to rearrange the contest to retain cricket bat as its election symbol for which it had applied. The PTI elected Barrister Gohar Khan as its chairman along with other office bearers and submitted the results with the election commission.
However, the ECP announced its verdict on Friday, ruling that the PTI had not complied with its directions and failed to hold intraparty election in accordance with the party’s own constitution along with the Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017.
The decision, which led to the party losing its election symbol, was described as “flawed, illegal, biased and a serious attack on the transparency of the elections” by a PTI spokesperson.
“We have done all the consultation,” Barrister Khan told reporters in Rawalpindi. “It’s just that we have not received the order of the election commission. The moment we get its certified copy, we will file our petitions on Tuesday morning since there is Christmas and Quaid-e-Azam Day on Monday.”
He maintained the ECP’s decision was not sustainable, adding that the judiciary would restore the party’s election symbol.
Earlier, the PTI said in a statement the electoral watchdog had once again proved it was not interested in conducting free and transparent polls.
“This biased, prejudiced and illegal verdict by the commission could not stand and it would be challenged in the Supreme Court.”
Election symbols are crucial in Pakistan where the adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, according to World Bank data.
The bat is reflective of Khan’s past as a successful cricketer. The former prime minister led Pakistan to their only 50-over World Cup win in 1992, propelling him to an unrivaled position among Pakistan’s cricket greats.
The ECP decision came less than two months before Pakistan is scheduled to head to the polls, but the PTI said it would contest and win the upcoming elections.
“The PTI would contest the forthcoming general elections with its electoral symbol of ‘bat’ and would secure historic victory in the polls despite all odds,” the PTI statement read.
The attempts to deprive the representative political party of millions of Pakistanis of its electoral symbol and to keep it “out of the electoral process” would never succeed, it added.
Political parties and their members in Pakistan are often tangled in legal proceedings that rights monitors say are orchestrated by the powerful military, which has ruled the country directly for more than half of its history and continues to enjoy immense power.
Khan’s PTI party has also been struggling against a widespread crackdown, with leading party figures either jailed or forced to leave the party.
The ex-premier, who has been locked up since August, has accused Pakistan’s powerful military, the ECP, and his political rivals of colluding to keep him and the PTI out of elections.
Pakistan’s military, the ECP, and the caretaker government deny the allegations.
Ex-PM Khan’s party to challenge election regulator’s decision on party symbol on Tuesday
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Ex-PM Khan’s party to challenge election regulator’s decision on party symbol on Tuesday
- The regulator stripped PTI of the election symbol for failing to comply with its directives on intraparty polls
- Election symbols are crucial in Pakistan where adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, according to World Bank data
Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan appointed Pakistan’s first Constitutional Court chief justice
- Federal Constitutional Court will now decide cases involving Pakistan’s constitution, instead of the Supreme Court
- A top court judge since 2019, Justice Khan has decided thousands of civil cases relating to inheritance, property
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari appointed top court judge Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan as the first chief justice of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Thursday, a notification from the law ministry said.
The FCC was formed after the government made sweeping changes to the military and judicial command structure via the 27th constitutional amendment. The new amendment shifts constitutional cases from the Supreme Court to the FCC while it grants expanded powers to Pakistan’s army chief.
“The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is pleased to appoint Mr. Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan as Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan with effect from the date he makes oath of his office,” a notification from the law ministry read.
According to the Supreme Court’s website, Justice Khan was born on Dec. 1, 1960 in the eastern city of Multan where he received his education from Kindergarten Muslim School. He completed his secondary education from the Government Muslim High School in 1977.
He secured his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1981 and completed his L.L.B degree from the University Law College in Multan in 1984 and also secured a diploma in Taxation Law.
Justice Khan obtained the license to practice in Pakistan’s lower courts in 1985 before enrolling as an advocate of the Lahore High Court in 1987. He was later enrolled as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2001.
He was involved there in mostly civil cases relating to property, preemption and matters of inheritance.
Justice Khan was elevated to the bench in 2011 and during his stint as judge, he decided thousands of civil cases the Bahawalpur Bench and Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court.
He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2019.
His appointment to the post takes place hours after two Supreme Court judges, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, resigned in protest.
The judges took exception to the 27th constitutional amendment, with Justice Shah describing it as a “grave assault” on the constitution.
The FCC was set up after years of clashes between the executive and the judiciary. Verdicts issued by the top courts over the years ousted prime ministers from office and put the judiciary on a confrontational path with the governments at the time.
