<\/p>\n
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday decided against letting the PTI retain its \u2018bat\u2019 electoral symbol for the February 8 general election.<\/p>\n
The reserved verdict was announced a day after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed<\/a> the electoral watchdog to decide on PTI\u2019s intra-party polls and electoral symbol by today in \u201caccordance with the law\u201d.<\/p>\n The development also came hours after the PTI met with the commission<\/a> following the Supreme Court\u2019s order for the ECP to address the party\u2019s concerns regarding lack of a level playing field in the run up to the polls. According to the PTI, the ECP had assured its delegation that it would address its grievances.<\/p>\n Setting a new precedence, the ECP had taken notice of the PTI\u2019s intra-party in which Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was easily elected<\/a> as the party\u2019s new chairman. The polls were held<\/a> on December 3, days after the ECP declared as null and void the intra-party polls held in June 2022, giving the PTI 20 days to hold fresh elections or be ready to become ineligible for the poll symbol.<\/p>\n However, the party was on the receiving end of sharp criticism over the polls as estranged PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar announced that he would challenge the entire process. He had alleged that the PTI had carried out a selection process aimed at throwing out party workers to give the reins to a few lawyers.<\/p>\n Subsequently, Akbar had approached<\/a> the ECP against the intra-party elections, alleging it was \u201crigged and fraudulent\u201d. Various other petitions were also submitted to the ECP along similar lines as Babar\u2019s with the mutual demands of declaring the intra-party election without effect and orders for the exercise to be carried out anew.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commis\u00adsioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, had reserved judgement<\/a> on the matter linked to the allocation of the \u2018bat\u2019 as the PTI\u2019s electoral symbol.<\/p>\n In its order, which was posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the ECP said that the PTI had not complied with its directions and had failed to hold intra-party elections in accordance with the party\u2019s prevailing constitution and the election laws.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, the certificate dated December 4 and Form-65 filed by the alleged chairman, is hereby regretted and rejected accordingly,\u201d the ECP said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe provisions of Section 215 of the Election Act, 2017 are hereby invoked and the PTI is hereby declared ineligible to obtain the election symbol for which they have applied for,\u201d the ECP said.<\/p>\n Moments after news of the ECP\u2019s decision was aired, the PTI took to X to term the decision part of the \u201cfamous London Plan\u201d and a \u201cdisgusting and shameful attempt to stop PTI from [participating in the] election.\u201d<\/p>\n It claimed that the party would still win the general elections.<\/p>\n The party said it would appeal the decision at every forum, asserting that its candidates would indeed contest the polls with the \u2018bat\u2019 symbol.<\/p>\n PTI Chairman Gohar said that the party already had concerns about the ECP. Speaking to Geo News<\/em>, he alleged that the commission was looking at the PTI\u2019s case in far greater detail as opposed to those concerning other political parties.<\/p>\n \u201cWe conducted our elections according to the law and the Constitution. We told the ECP to tell us which section and law was violated,\u201d he said. The PTI chairman said that the ECP had filed a reply with the PHC and \u201csaid not one word\u201d about which Constitutional provision or section of the rules were violated.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a political decision based on personal vendetta [\u2026] this is a conspiracy. What are the elements behind this that you take the symbol from a big party and turn all its candidates into independents?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n He said the conspiracy was meant to \u201ctake revenge from us\u201d and confuse the party\u2019s candidates and voters. Gohar said the party would approach the high court and challenge the verdict. He also said the party had a \u201cPlan B\u201d but did not elaborate further.<\/p>\n PTI\u2019s Taimur Khan Jhagra noted that the ECP had committed before the SC that it would meet PTI and provide a level playing field.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly hours later, they took away PTI\u2019s symbol of the bat. It still won\u2019t work. And the bat will still be back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Lawyer Abuzar Salman Niazi, meanwhile, said that the party was without the \u2018bat\u2019 for only two to three days.<\/p>\n \u201cNo Court will uphold this absurd decision. It will remain a shame for ECP for all times to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Talking to Geo News<\/em>, former ECP secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad said after the decision, the party\u2019s electoral candidates would have to contest the general elections as independent candidates.<\/p>\n He said the party had the option to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Dilshad also said that there was no provision in the country\u2019s election laws which allowed for intra-party polls to be held repeatedly.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the PTI\u2019s intra-party elections were rejected a third time, its candidates would have to contest the polls independently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More to follow.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday decided against letting the PTI retain its \u2018bat\u2019 electoral symbol for the February 8 general election. The reserved verdict was announced a day after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed the electoral watchdog to decide on PTI\u2019s intra-party polls and electoral symbol by today in \u201caccordance with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/22205917108653c.jpg?r=205957","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}PTI terms decision part of \u2018famous London plan\u2019<\/h2>\n