—– ECP protests that PHC did not pay heed to electoral body’s arguments before suspending its order
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) reserved its verdict on Tuesday on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) intra-court appeal challenging its ruling on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) intra-party polls and the subsequent revoking of the ‘cricket bat’ as the party’s electoral symbol.
During the hearing presided over by Justice Ejaz Khan, the electoral body’s counsel contended that the ECP sought a review of the PHC’s ruling. “Election commission had issued a notice to the PTI as the intra-party elections were not conducted properly,” the advocate stated.
“Questions were raised over the authority of the election commission and it was said that the election commission’s decision was unconstitutional even though the single-bench suspended the decision without listening to the ECP”, the lawyer argued and added that even though the electoral body was a part of this case, the PHC did not heed ECP’s arguments.
The lawyer further said that neither is the federal government a part of this case nor does the Centre play a role in the election commission’s decision-making. “The election commission is an independent body which reserves the prerogative to give its judgments,” the advocate maintained and stated that whatever the ECP decides, becomes the final judgement.
He reiterated that a verdict cannot be passed without listening to the ECP’s arguments.
The advocate general (AG), however, protested and stated that the government does not want to be a party to the case. “We are the interim provincial government and for us, all parties are equal, therefore, we have nothing to do with this,” he stated and added that their mention as a respondent “should be deleted from the case”.
The AG further said that the provincial government would only provide judicial assistance if it is issued a notice.
Justice Khan asked whether the federal government had the same reservation. To this, the additional attorney general (AAG) informed him that the Centre also shared the same opinion as the caretaker provincial government.
After listening to the argument, the high court reserved a decision. –Agencies
