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The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday heard the PTI’s writ petition against its December 22 order, which revoked its ‘bat’ electoral symbol and declared its intra-party polls “unconstitutional”.
On December 22, the ECP had decided against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the February 8 election, saying that it had failed to hold intra-party polls — which saw Barrister Gohar Khan becoming the PTI chairman — in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws.
Subsequently, the PTI had approached the PHC. On Dec 26, the PHC had suspended till Jan 9 the ECP’s declaration of the PTI’s intra-party polls as unconstitutional as well as the subsequent revocation of the ‘bat’ symbol. It had also noted that general elections were scheduled for February 8 and the last date for allotment of election symbols was January 13.
On Dec 30, the electoral watchdog had filed a review petition in the PHC, arguing that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. Days later, in a major blow for the PTI, the high court restored the ECP’s December 22 order that had stripped the party of its symbol.
Subsequently, the PTI moved the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling, which has been fixed for hearing on January 11 (Thursday).
Today, Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Arshad Ali took up the plea.
Prior to the hearing, the PTI Lawyers’ Forum informed the court that party counsels Barrister Gohar Ali and Ali Zafar would arrive by 12:30pm, requesting it to wait till then to begin the hearing.
When the hearing began after the requested time, Advocate Qazi Anwar informed the PHC that the two PTI lawyers would reach the court in “five to ten minutes”.
At this, Justice Anwar expressed displeasure, asking, “Are you not interested? We have been waiting since the morning for them.
“When our cases were fixed at the Supreme Court, we used to reach there early in the morning,” he added. Qazi again sought more time from the judges, assuring the court that the PTI leaders were to arrive soon.
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