Supreme Court Decision on Intra Party election andElection sign of PTI

 Supreme courts' Supreme Order

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) suffered yet another blow, as the Supreme Court on Saturday declared the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) January 10 order ‘null and void’, depriving the embattled party of electoral symbol ‘bat.’

The decision comes moments before the expiry of the deadline for allotment of electoral symbol, which was extended till midnight by the ECP earlier in the day.

In the unanimous verdict, the three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, declared that the PTI’s intra-party elections were unconstitutional. The court reserved the verdict after marathon hearing for two day, which was broadcast live on the apex court’s website.

CJP Faez Isa stated that the plea in Peshawar High Court was inadmissible as a single case cannot proceed in two High Courts at the same time.

The verdict said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) failed to present evidence of holding transparent intra-party elections as all political parties are bound to hold free and fair intra-party elections.

The apex court’s unanimous verdict came after hours of wait as Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led three-member bench decided to uphold the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) plea.

The top court allowed ECP’s petition by setting aside the high court’s ruling, and upheld the December 22 decision of the electoral body.

The five-page verdict stated that the apex court judges “do not agree with the learned judges [of the PHC] that the ECP did not have ‘any jurisdiction to question or adjudicate the intra-party elections of a political party.'”

It stated that accepting any such interpretation would render all provisions in the Election Act, 2017, that require the holding of intra party elections “illusory and of no consequence and be redundant”.

The verdict stated that since the ECP had been calling upon PTI to hold its intra-party elections since 24 May 2021, the time when the party was in power, “it cannot be stated that ECP was victimising PTI”.

In its reasoning for today’s verdict, the top court stated that the PTI’s petition filed in the PHC was “not maintainable” as it failed to disclose that another similar petition was pending before the five-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The apex court underscored that although a petitioner “may elect to avail of his remedy before either court, but having chosen a particular court the same dispute cannot then be taken to the other court”.