Pakistan regulator seeks review of court decision restoring ‘bat’ as ex-PM Khan party’s poll symbol

In this file photo, supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hold a giant cricket bat with the colors and initials of the party as they cheer during a political campaign rally by Imran Khan in Multan on July 20, 2018. (AFP/File)

• The Peshawar High Court on Dec. 26 restored the poll symbol, which is reflective of Khan’s past as cricketer 
• The Election Commission of Pakistan says the ruling by the high court was beyond its ‘territorial jurisdiction’

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court (PHC), seeking a review of a ruling by its single-judge bench that restored cricket bat as the election symbol of former prime minister Imran Khan’s party.
The election oversight body on Dec. 22 ruled that intraparty polls of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, held earlier this month, violated regulations and declared them null and void. As a result, the ECP had stripped the party of its electoral symbol.
The PTI subsequently petitioned the PHC against the ECP’s move and the high court on Dec. 26 suspended the election regulator’s decision and restored bat as the PTI’s electoral symbol, which is reflective of ex-PM Khan’s past as a successful cricketer who led Pakistan to their only 50-over World Cup win in 1992.
In its review petition filed on Saturday, the election regulator stated that “the interim relief so granted vide order dated 26th December 2023 is against the law as well as the dictum laid by the Honorable Supreme Court” and was prima facie “beyond territorial jurisdiction” of the PHC.
“The subject matter of the titled writ petition [filed by the PTI] falls within the exclusive domain of the [election] commission and as a general rule not open to judicial review while exercising jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the ECP said in its review petition.
“The constitution unambiguously vests the powers and jurisdiction in the commission to make factual determinations in regard to subject matter of writ petition.”
The ECP’s decision to strip the PTI of the symbol came days after a disgruntled PTI leader, Akbar S. Babar, challenged the PTI’s intraparty elections in the ECP, urging the watchdog to declare the exercise null and void for violating rules. Babar contended the PTI had neither displayed a final list of candidates nor was any paperwork done for the polls.
Election symbols are crucial in Pakistan where the adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, according to the World Bank data. Without the bat symbol, analysts say, the PTI’s nominees would have to contest the upcoming elections, scheduled for Feb. 8, as independent candidates.
Khan, who is in prison since August after being convicted in a graft case, has accused Pakistan’s powerful military, the ECP, and the caretaker government of colluding with his rivals to keep him and the PTI away from the elections. The Pakistani military, the election regulator, and the caretaker government deny the allegation.