The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) suffered a significant blow just before the polls on February 8 when the Supreme Court on Saturday overturned the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) January 10 ruling, eliminating the party’s famous “bat” emblem.
Following a full day of hearings, a three-judge panel led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and consisting of Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Musarrat Hilali rendered a unanimous decision.
After several hours of deliberation, the three-member bench led by Chief Justice Prashant Isa of the highest court ruled in favor of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The PHC ruling was challenged by the election controlling body, which ruled that the commission’s order was “illegal, without any lawful authority and of no legal effect.”
The dispute began with the election commission’s December 22, 2023, ruling that prevented the PTI party from using its electoral symbol in the approaching elections on February 8 due to anomalies in their internal polls that were not compliant with the party’s own constitution or election laws.
This prompted the party led by Imran Khan to contest the removal of their symbol from the PHC. Temporary relief was granted by a single-member judge, who also restored the bat emblem and referred the matter to a bigger bench for hearing on January 9.
The polling organization then contested the PHC’s authority to hear the case on December 30. But in a stunning change of events, the PHC maintained the ECP’s judgment and overturned its previous ruling.
The PTI brought its battle to the nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court, fearing that it would lose its famous cricket bat symbol in the approaching elections. But then, in a calculated move, they dropped their appeal in the hopes that the PHC would rule in their favor.
The PHC’s nullification of the ECP ruling gave the PTI what it wanted, but only temporarily, as today’s order eliminated the highly desired electoral symbol.
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