PESHAWAR/LAHORE (DL News) – The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday accepted the review plea filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), restoring the December 22 orders under which the PTI was deprived of “bat” – the party symbol.
Thus top provincial court reversed the single-bench’s December 26 verdict, which had suspended the ECP decision till January 9, enabling the PTI to use its party symbol.
On the other hand, the LHC (Lahore High Court) will announce its judgment on a similar petition tomorrow (Thursday).
It was a single member bench comprising Justice Ejaz Khan, which heard the ECP plea and reserved judgment representatives from both sides presented their arguments.
Sikander Bashir Mohmand was the ECP’s counsel while Shah Faisal Uthmankhel and Qazi Anwar appeared on behalf of PTI.
The PTI counsel argued that the ECP decision to deprive the party of “bat” was illegal and added that no action had been taken against 19 other parties which, according to them, didn’t hold intraparty polls.
However, the ECP representative was of the view that the high court wasn’t the right forum to challenge the orders passed by the country’s top electoral body. The PTI should have moved the Supreme Court, he added.
