CRUEL BLOW TO PTI

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan late on Saturday night dealt a cruel blow to the embattled PTI of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan by striping the party of its iconic election symbol of ‘Bat’.

The court in its order that was released at about midnight voided Peshawar High Court’s decision to restore ‘Bat’ as the election symbol of PTI.

The court passed the order in an appeal filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Waiting for the release of the court order, the election commission continued extending the closing timing for allotment of symbols to candidates, first from 4pm to 7pm and then to 10pm.

However, the court could not announce its ruling even after 10:30pm due to unknown reasons, and the deadline was again delayed till 11pm and then again to 11:30pm when the order was issued.

In its short order, the court stated that there was no evidence to prove that the PTI had held an intra-party election.

The verdict means the PTI’s ticket holders would have to contest the elections as independent candidates.

The PTI’s bid to join the elections using the PTI-Nazriati splinter group’s symbol, the batsman, also hit a snag after the latter went back on an agreement that would have allowed the PTI candidates to stand in the elections with their symbol.

On the other hand, the verdict drew severe and scathing criticism from legal and human rights experts.

Barrister Asad Rahim said: “Given the nature of its decisions and the now routine absurdity of its logic, this is probably the shortest time in which the Supreme Court has lost its credibility. An utterly ludicrous order.”

Activist Ammar Ali Jan said the verdict was “not just a defeat for PTI but a defeat for democratic norms in Pakistan”.

Earlier, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, had reserved its judgement on an appeal filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan against the verdict of the Peshawar High Court that had restored ‘Bat’ as the election symbol of the PTI. 

The chief justice during the proceedings remarked that the ECP was to allocate election symbols to candidates for the Feb 8 elections on Saturday. We also have to write judgement and announce it today keeping in view the time frame for allocations of the symbols by the commission, he added.

The ECP took back the symbol of ‘Bat’ from the embattled PTI of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan three weeks ago, saying it did not hold the recent intra-party election in accordance with its constitution.

The party challenged the decision in Peshawar High Court which restored the symbol and issued a stay order on the decision of the ECP on Dec 26, 2023. On Jan 3, 2024, however, a bench of the PHC restored the order of the election commission. A two-member bench on Jan 10 gave back the election symbol to the PTI against which the ECP moved the Supreme Court.