{"id":39676,"date":"2023-12-25T11:55:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T11:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/pti-to-challenge-flawed-ecp-verdict-on-intra-party-polls-electoral-symbol-in-peshawar-high-court\/"},"modified":"2023-12-25T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T11:55:05","slug":"pti-to-challenge-flawed-ecp-verdict-on-intra-party-polls-electoral-symbol-in-peshawar-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pti-to-challenge-flawed-ecp-verdict-on-intra-party-polls-electoral-symbol-in-peshawar-high-court\/","title":{"rendered":"PTI to challenge \u2018flawed\u2019 ECP verdict on intra-party polls, electoral symbol in Peshawar High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

The PTI on Monday said it would challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s decision<\/a> to declare its intra-party polls as unconstitutional and revoke the iconic \u2018bat\u2019 symbol in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) tomorrow (Tuesday).<\/p>\n

The development comes after the electoral watchdog last week voided, for the second time in less than a month, PTI\u2019s internal elections in which Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was easily elected<\/a> as the party\u2019s new chairman.<\/p>\n

The verdict came following a first-of-its-kind microscopic examination of the inner workings of a political party and declared the party ineligible to obtain an election symbol to contest the upcoming general elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is held that PTI has not complied with our directions rendered therein order dated 23rd November 2023 and failed to hold intra-party election in accordance with PTI prevailing Constitution, 2019 and Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017,\u201d the ECP had said in its 11-page order.<\/p>\n

The party had termed 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 had also claimed that the party would still win the general elections, maintaining that it would appeal the decision at every forum. It asserted that its candidates would indeed contest the polls with the \u2018bat\u2019 symbol, come what may.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Dawn.com<\/em> today, PTI lawyer and central information secretary Mohammad Muazzam Butt said the party had decided to approach the high court and would file a writ petition on Dec 26.<\/p>\n

He said the main party leadership would file the case, claiming that the ECP\u2019s verdict was a \u201clegally flawed\u201d decision, adding that the commission had failed to serve justice in its order.<\/p>\n

Butt further claimed that petitions against the PTI\u2019s internal elections were filed in the ECP based on \u201cmalicious intent\u201d and \u201con orders of some people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not being provided a level playing field and attempts are being made to keep us away from polls,\u201d the secretary added.<\/p>\n

PTI, ECP both found at fault<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, experts have criticised both the poll watchdog as well as the former ruling party for what they called their contradictory behaviour.<\/p>\n

Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) head Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said PTI should have been more careful about its intra-party polls. \u201cAt the same time we have seen the election commission has been soft over many other things,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He had told<\/a> Dawn<\/em> the PTI had the best-detailed description for holding the intra-party elections and that procedure was followed in 2012. \u201cThat excellent democratic process was not witnessed again, possibly the PTI too tried to copy the procedures of other parties,\u201d he opined, adding, \u201cBut there is a difference as the constitutions of other parties do not have such detailed description of conducting the intra-party elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehboob said PTI\u2019s elections were due in 2021, but because of Covid-19 lockdowns, they were held in June 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cPTI was not careful at that time too and the procedures listed in their constitution were not followed. Later, when the ECP directed it to hold the elections within 20 days the PTI should have been more careful as far as following its own constitution was concerned,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Pildat chief also found fault with ECP\u2019s working. He said the watchdog has not been treating all parties even-handedly. \u201cECP should have taken action when Senator Bugti was inducted into the caretaker cabinet because he was a BAP member of the upper house,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cHe was holding such an important portfolio and just as the elections are approaching he has joined another party; this should not be allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The PTI on Monday said it would challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s decision to declare its intra-party polls as unconstitutional and revoke the iconic \u2018bat\u2019 symbol in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) tomorrow (Tuesday). The development comes after the electoral watchdog last week voided, for the second time in less than a month, PTI\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39677,"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\/251515057647d2e.jpg?r=151531","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39676","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=39676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}