Pakistan top court hears election regulator’s plea against restoration of ex-PM Khan party’s symbol

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan is hearing a petition filed by the country’s election oversight body today, on Friday, that challenges a high court ruling allowing former prime minister Imran Khan’s party to retain its electoral symbol, a cricket bat.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) filed the petition on Thursday after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) allowed Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to retain the electoral symbol, which is reflective of Khan’s past as a cricketer.
The ECP last month stripped the party of the symbol, ruling its intraparty polls were not held according to the country’s election laws and the party’s constitution. But the PHC declared on Wednesday the ECP’s decision “unconstitutional.”
On Friday, a Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, began hearing the petition that challenged the Peshawar High Court’s ruling.
“ECP took the stance that its decision [to revoke the symbol] should be maintained since the PTI could not conduct fair intraparty elections,” ECP spokesperson Nadeem Haider told Arab News.
On Thursday, PTI Chairman Gohar Khan told reporters the PHC decision was in their favor and its implementation was “necessary” unless set aside by the top court.
“The Peshawar High Court’s decision came in our favor,” he said. “Till the Supreme Court does not set aside this order, its implementation is necessary.”
Separately, the party moved the PHC for contempt proceedings against the ECP for not publishing the certificate of PTI’s intra-party polls on its website.
Gohar 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.
The developments come amid allegations of “pre-poll rigging” by the PTI ahead of national elections, scheduled for February 8. Many of its top leaders, including Khan, 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.