Lahore High Court dismisses plea by Imran Khan's party seeking restoration of 'bat' election symbol

Lahore: In a fresh blow to jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's party ahead of elections, a high court here on Thursday dismissed a plea challenging the election commission's order declaring its organisational polls "unconstitutional" and revoking its iconic cricket bat electoral symbol.

The reserved verdict announced by Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Jawad Hassan declared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Umar Aftab Dhillon’s petition inadmissible, Geo News reported.

On December 22, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected PTI's intra-party elections and deprived the party of its cricket bat symbol. Barrister Gohar Khan was elected as the party's new chairman in the internal elections in December.

The party, founded by Imran Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, challenged the verdict in the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which on December 26, suspended the ECP’s declaration of the PTI's intra-party polls as unconstitutional as well as the subsequent revocation of the party’s iconic symbol. The election commission challenged the high court verdict.

On Wednesday, the PHC restored the ECP order suspending the party's organisational polls as void and revoking its iconic cricket bat electoral symbol.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the PTI lawyer urged the LHC to rescind the apex poll body's order and direct it to publish the PTI’s certificate for the intra-party election on its website.

He claimed that the 'bat' symbol was illegally withdrawn as the matter of organisational elections did not fall within the jurisdiction of the electoral body, the report said.

He said the ECP was not a court of law, and it could not question the validity of appointments within a party or intra-party election.

The PTI lawyer claimed that various tactics were being adopted to create hurdles for the party candidates, as first they were being stopped from filing nomination papers and then were not being allowed to use the ‘bat’ symbol.

The government’s counsel rendered the plea non-maintainable, stating the PTI leader was not directly affected, the report said.

The development has left the former ruling party, its candidates, and supporters in limbo in the wake of the upcoming general elections slated for February 8.

Given the PHC's order, the party’s candidates would now have to contest elections “independently”, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, chief of the think tank Pildat, told Geo News.

But it is not the end of the story as the single bench of the court also announced that a two-member panel would decide the case's fate on January 9.

Talking to reporters in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said his party would move the apex court after due deliberations, noting that the Supreme Court "would not let this matter slide", according to the report.

"The Supreme Court has already stated that revoking a party's symbol is tantamount to disbanding the entire party," he said, hoping that his party would get relief from the top court.

Gohar noted that all PTI ticket holders would run as independent candidates if the apex court did not accept the party's plea. However, he said the PHC's verdict has "damaged" democracy.

"If the election commission has an issue with the 'bat', then it can allot us another symbol," he was quoted as saying in the report.

After the PHC’s final judgment on January 9, the matter would finally land in the Supreme Court, which would ultimately decide if the PTI would get the cricket bat as its symbol.

On Monday, Gohar Khan said that his party will participate in the general elections, even without getting the cricket 'bat' as its electoral symbol.

"Even if we do not get the bat symbol, we will still participate in the elections. PTI will not boycott the elections under any circumstances,” he said.

His remarks came as the PTI faced unusual pressure to get fair treatment in the run-up to the elections. The party ran into trouble after the May 9 violence when its supporters attacked key military installations following the arrest of Imran Khan in an alleged corruption case.