Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a detailed written judgment regarding the intra party elections of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its election symbol ‘cricket bat’.

The 38-page judgment, authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, read: “The petition of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is converted into an appeal and allowed by setting aside the impugned order and judgment of the PHC (Peshawar High Court),; resultantly, the order of the ECP dated 22 December 2023 is upheld.

“The ECP had issued a notice on 24 May 2021 to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (‘PTI’) to hold intra party elections, which was followed by a show cause notice stating that section 208 of Elections Act, 2017 (‘the Act’) mandates that intra party elections in PTI must be held and it had been five years since the last one was held, and ECP stipulated the consequences, mentioned in the Act, which would follow if elections were not held. PTI did not dispute that elections had not been held but submitted that because of Covid-19 the time for holding its intra party elections may be extended by one year. Time was granted and PTI was directed to hold intra party elections no later than 13 June 2022 and told that ‘no further extension will be granted’. “The ECP vide its order dated 13 September 2023 held that ‘a lenient view has been taken with direction to the PTI to hold its intra party elections strictly in accordance with the prevailing party constitution, within twenty days positively’ failing which it ‘would be ineligible to obtain an election symbol for elections. “ECP has been calling upon PTI to hold its intra party elections since 24 May 2021; at that time the PTI was in the Federal Government and in some provinces. Therefore, it cannot be stated that ECP was victimizing PTI.