Pakistan: PTI Moves SC Seeking Review of Intra-Party Election Verdict

With the February 8 elections looming, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has approached the Supreme Court, requesting a review of the apex court’s recent verdict concerning the party’s intra-party elections and electoral symbol.

In a petition filed on Wednesday, PTI urges the Supreme Court to reconsider its January 13 decision, which upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ruling declaring PTI’s intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and consequently revoking the party’s electoral symbol.

The plea filed by PTI seeks to restore the decision of the Peshawar High Court, which deemed the electoral watchdog’s decision “invalid” on January 10. The Peshawar High Court arrived at this decision after considering PTI’s petition challenging the ECP’s declaration of the intra-party polls as null and void, and the subsequent revocation of their electoral symbol, the “bat.”

PTI underscores in its petition that the intra-party polls conducted in December adhered to the party’s constitution. The party asserts in its Supreme Court filing, “The Election Commission is not empowered to review intra-party elections.”

Earlier in January, a three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, nullified the PHC’s January 10 verdict and revoked PTI’s electoral symbol, the “bat.”

In a five-page verdict, the apex court judges stated that they “do not agree with the learned judges [of the PHC] that the ECP did not have ‘any jurisdiction to question or adjudicate the intra-party elections of a political party.'”

The verdict emphasized that accepting such an interpretation would render provisions in the Election Act, 2017, pertaining to the holding of intra-party polls “illusory and of no consequence and be redundant.”

Additionally, the verdict highlighted that the ECP had been directing PTI to conduct intra-party elections since May 24, 2021, a time when the party was in power. Therefore, it stated, “It cannot be stated that ECP was victimising PTI.”

The apex court noted that PTI’s petition filed in the Peshawar High Court was deemed “not maintainable” as it did not disclose that a similar petition was pending before the five-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC). The court emphasized that while a petitioner “may elect to avail of his remedy before either court, having chosen a particular court, the same dispute cannot then be taken to the other court.”