PTI ‘bat’ petition is not maintainable, according to LHC

LAHORE: A day after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) overturned the rulings made by a single-member bench, the Lahore High Court (LHC) declared on Thursday that the petition submitted to restore the use of the “bat” as the PTI party symbol was unmaintainable.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) filed a review plea, which the Peshawar High Court (PHC) accepted on Wednesday. This reinstated the orders from December 22 that had previously denied the PTI its party symbol.

As a result, the top provincial court overturned the single-bench decision from December 26 that had allowed the PTI to use its party symbol while the ECP decision was suspended until January 9.

Earlier on Wednesday, the one-member bench had postponed its decision while a local attorney petitioned the LHC to secure the “bat.”

Read More: PHC resumes hearing on ECP plea in PTI ‘bat’ symbol case

Justice Jawad Hassan, who had earlier declared that the verdict would be delivered today (Tuesday), made the announcement.

“[I] will make the decision public today, Wednesday.” My choice would be regarded as precedent by the courts. “Just wait for it,” said Justice Hassan.

The judge pointed out during the hearing that the Supreme Court had previously declared that there should be no intervention in election-related matters [at the highest court level]. He said that the Tehreek-e-Insaf ought to set up a research wing to submit cases following an extensive investigation.

The federal government representative objected to the petition at the same time, stating that it was unmaintainable. He said that since the attorney had entered the plea in his individual capacity, the petitioner was not impacted.

Read More: PHC declares the verdict while PTI loses the “bat” symbol

Furthermore, the law enforcement official stated that despite the Supreme Court’s explicit warning against meddling in elections, the federal government was not named as a party in the petition.

However, the petitioner—a PTI member—argued that the PHC had issued a stay order to revoke the ECP’s orders [until January 9], which would mean that the PTI would only use the “bat” as its party symbol in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and not in Punjab.

He begged that Punjab could receive similar orders from the LHC.

Nonetheless, the court ordered the petitioner to provide written responses to a number of significant queries, one of which was whether a higher court could get involved in cases that were already under review by the Supreme Court. The other question concerned whether any party had contested the Election Act’s Section 2015.