ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s election regulator on Thursday appealed a high court’s decision from earlier this week that allowed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to retain its electoral symbol of a cricket bat. 

In a significant development on Wednesday, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) overturned the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to strip the PTI of its bat symbol, declaring it unconstitutional and enabling Khan’s party to retain it. The ECP last month stripped the party of the symbol, ruling that its intraparty polls were not held according to the country’s election laws and the PTI’s constitution. 

“The Peshawar High Court’s decision came in our favor, if the Election Commission wishes to appeal it at the Supreme Court, it is their right,” PTI Chairman Gohar Khan told reporters. 

“However, till the Supreme Court does not set aside this order, its implementation is necessary.”

On Thursday, the party moved the Peshawar High Court seeking contempt proceedings against the ECP for not publishing the certificate of PTI’s intra-party polls on its website. 

Gohar Khan said since the ECP had not published the certificate of the PTI’s intraparty polls on its website, it could cause a delay in the regulator allotting the election symbol to his party. 

However, he said the party would announce its candidates by Thursday night. 

“Our consultations for awarding party tickets to candidates have been finalized,” Gohar Khan revealed. “I will make the announcement in this regard around 9 p.m. or 11:00 p.m.”

The PTI has frequently complained in recent months it is not getting a “level playing field“— a euphemism for fair chance— ahead of the next general elections.

Many of its top leaders are facing a number of legal cases against them and are currently incarcerated in high-security prisons in different Pakistani cities.

Pakistan is currently being run by a caretaker administration under interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. Millions of Pakistanis will head to the ballot box, amid a precarious security and economic situation, on February 8 to cast their votes and elect their representatives.