strip<\/a> PTI of its iconic election symbol \u2018bat\u2019 by reinstating the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s decision.<\/p>\nThe apex court, a little before midnight, announced the verdict, dealing a huge blow to the embattled party\u2019s hopes of retaining its symbol.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Reema Omer said the court\u2019s verdict was \u201cexcessive, punitive \u2026 and a huge blow to our fundamental rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another lawyer and himself an election candidate, Jibran Nasir, listed down the major consequences of the Supreme Court decision, and regretted that the verdict would disenfranchise \u201ctens of millions of voters across Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
Barrister Asad Rahim Khan was scathing in his criticism of the verdict, saying: \u201cGiven the nature of its decisions and the now routine absurdity of its logic, this is probably the shortest time in which the Supreme Court has lost its credibility. An utterly ludicrous order.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activist Ammar Ali Jan said the verdict was \u201cnot just a defeat for PTI but a defeat for democratic norms in Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
Uzair Younis, director of the Atlantic Council\u2019s Pakistan Initiative, said that \u201cthere are no winners here. The only loser is Pakistan and its democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawyer Hassan A. Niazi said the verdict sets a \u201cterrible precedent\u201d and \u201ccontradicts the court\u2019s own settled jurisprudence in the Benazir Bhutto case on fundamental rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not just the rights of a political party that were at stake but the rights of millions of voters who have now been effectively stripped of exercising their choice in favour of a political party,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mirza Moiz Baig, another lawyer, pointed out that the ECP\u2019s decision to strip PTI of its electoral symbol and the Supreme Court affirming the same \u201cappears to be inconsistent with the Elections Act and the Supreme Court\u2019s own judgment in the District Bar Rawalpindi case\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSection 208(5) of the Elections Act, for instance, states that where a political party fails to conduct elections within time, such party shall be liable to a fine,\u201d he explained. \u201cGiven that the legislature consciously failed to add any more penalties in Section 208, the ECP\u2019s action against PTI seems beyond the mandate of the law. Moreover, Section 215 of the 2017 Act read with Section 209 only obliges a party so submit a certificate affirming that it has conducted intra-party polls according to the law and it\u2019s own constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cInterestingly, prior to the 18th Amendment, Article 17(4) of the Constitution provided that each political party shall be liable to conducting elections. Nonetheless, after the Amendment omitting Article 17(4), the Supreme Court in District Bar Rawalpindi\u2019s case acknowledged that intra-party polls were not a \u201csina qua non for a democratic set up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Kugelman, an analyst and scholar on South Asian affairs, called the development \u201cbrazen, not subtle, pre-polls rigging\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asad Rahim calls it an “utterly ludicrous order”, while Ammar Ali Jan deems it “not just a defeat for PTI but a defeat for democratic norms in Pakistan”. Legal eagles and political experts were in disbelief after the Supreme Court on Saturday decided to strip PTI of its iconic election symbol \u2018bat\u2019 by reinstating the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47534,"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\/132358410c6a1a7.jpg?r=000428","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47533","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\/47533","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=47533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}