<\/p>\n
The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on review pleas filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the PHC\u2019s decision to suspend the electoral watchdog\u2019s declaration of PTI\u2019s intra-party polls as void and the re\u00advocation of its election symbol.<\/p>\n
On December 22, the ECP had decided against<\/a> letting PTI retain its iconic \u2018bat\u2019 symbol for the February 8 general election, saying that the party had failed to hold intra-party polls \u2014 which saw Barrister Gohar Khan becoming<\/a> the PTI chairman \u2014 in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the PTI had approached the PHC. Last week, the court had suspended<\/a> the ECP\u2019s declaration of the PTI\u2019s intra-party polls as unconstitutional as well as the subsequent revocation of the party\u2019s iconic symbol.<\/p>\n It had also noted that general elections were scheduled for February 8 and the last date for allotment of election symbols was January 13.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the ECP had filed<\/a> a review petition in the PHC against the suspension of its decision to declare PTI\u2019s intra-party polls as void and not let the party retain its \u2018bat\u2019 electoral symbol.<\/p>\n During the hearing today, presided by Justice Ejaz Khan, ECP counsel Sikandar Mohmand appeared in court.<\/p>\n At the outset, the judge inquired if the Supreme Court had passed orders that directives issued by a high court applied to the entire country.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely. The SC suspended the Lahore High Court\u2019s decision regarding returning officers,\u201d the lawyer replied. He elaborated that the judgment was suspended under a unilateral decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second point is that the interim relief and final plea are the same,\u201d he added. At one point, the judge asked where the petitioner in the case was to which the ECP counsel said he was unaware.<\/p>\n Justice Khan also stated that he could not issue an order in the case as it was fixed before a division bench on Jan 9. However, the ECP lawyer said he only wanted the court to withdraw the PHC order, adding that arguments would be presented before the division bench.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the court reserved its verdict.<\/p>\n ECP\u2019s counsel, Mohsin Kam\u00adran Siddique, had filed two applications in the high court.<\/p>\n In one application, the ECP requested the high court to accept its plea and recall the interim relief granted to the petitioners (PTI leaders) by a single-member bench on Dec 26. In the other, the commission has sought the formation of a two-member special bench to hear the matter.<\/p>\n It argued that the writ petition of the PTI came up for hearing before the high court on Dec 26 and the court passed an interim order without issuing notice to the ECP.<\/p>\n \u201cThe petitioners have sought interim relief for the suspension of the order of the commission dated Dec 22, 2023, as well as for publication of intra-party polls certificate on the commission\u2019s website along with restoration of party symbol (bat). That the interim order referred herein above, in fact, decides the whole writ petition which amounts to granting of final relief,\u201d the ECP said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat under Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the High Court of a province is empowered to make an order directing a person performing within its territorial jurisdiction. The election symbol of the petitioner is to be allocated across the country, hence without conceding the impugned order, the same has prima facie been passed beyond the territorial jurisdiction of this Hon\u2019ble Court,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The ECP also argued that issues raised in the PTI\u2019s writ petition were exclusively within the commission\u2019s purview and generally not subject to judicial review under Article 199.<\/p>\n \u201cEven otherwise it is settled law that disputed questions of facts cannot be resolved while exercising jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution. The Constitution unambiguously vests the powers and jurisdiction in the commission to make factual determinations in regard to the subject matter of the writ petition,\u201d the ECP added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on review pleas filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the PHC\u2019s decision to suspend the electoral watchdog\u2019s declaration of PTI\u2019s intra-party polls as void and the re\u00advocation of its election symbol. On December 22, the ECP had decided against letting PTI retain its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42880,"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\/2024\/01\/02130135a56cb1f.jpg?r=130228","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42879","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=42879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ECP pleas<\/h2>\n