PESHAWAR/LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The PTI is expected to approach the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday (today) in a bid to retain the ‘bat’ as the party’s symbol for the upcoming elections.

“It is our legitimate right to contest the upcoming general election with the symbol of bat,” party spokesperson Raoof Hasan told Dawn, referring to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s Dec 22 order, which declared its intra-party polls void and stripped the party of its election symbol..

“On Tuesday, we will file the petition in the PHC, hoping that the court will direct the ECP to allow the party to contest under the slogan of bat,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Peshawar, Advocate Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, senior vice president of the Insaf Lawyers’ Forum, told Dawn that the party’s chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, had met founder Imran Khan in prison and consulted him over the filing of the petition.

Submits 230 nomination papers for 44 NA and 435 for 97 PA seats in central Punjab

“Imran Khan has allowed the party to file a petition in the PHC challenging the ECP’s order,” said Mr Uthmankhel, who was also part of the panel of lawyers that previously moved the high court against the delay on the part of the ECP in signing off on the intra-party polls.

On Dec 21, the PHC had directed the ECP to decide matters related to PTI’s intra-party polls by Dec 22 “in accordance with the law”.

In its subsequent order, the commission had ruled that the PTI had failed to hold an intra-party election in accordance with the prevailing PTI constitution of 2019, the Elec­t­ions Act of 2017, and the Election Rules of 2017. The commission also declared the party ineligible to obtain an election symbol under Sec­tion 215 of the Elections Act, 2017.

Separately, the PTI said it had filed some 230 nomination papers for 44 National Assembly (NA) seats and 435 papers for 97 Punjab Assembly (PA) seats across 11 districts of central Punjab. The party has not issued a consolidated list of its candidates, explaining that the actual candidates’ lists will emerge after the scrutiny process is completed on Dec 30.

The ECP has reportedly ‘withheld’ PTI’s lists of nominees for women and non-Muslim reserved seats. The party has also not made these lists public as it prepares for a legal battle in the PHC, which may eventually reach the Supreme Court.

The PTI candidates faced tough circumstances during the nomination paper filing process, encountering “state resistance” in all 11 districts of Central Punjab — Gujrat, Wazirabad, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala, Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura, Lahore, and Kasur, the party claimed.

Speaking to Dawn, PTI Central Punjab additional general secretary Sardar Azeemullah Khan said a legal battle is still ongoing for the submission of nomination papers for the party’s Gujrat district president, Saleem Sarwar Jora.

Three to nine candidates have submitted nomination papers for NA seats, and three to 13 candidates have submitted nominations for PA seats. After the scrutiny of nomination papers, Mr Khan stated, the party would decide on the principal candidates for respective seats.

He told Dawn that his nomination papers were scrutinised on Monday and found correct.

However, the returning officer mentioned he would issue a certificate only after receiving a confidential report from Islamabad.

The nomination papers of PTI central Punjab general secretary Hammad Azhar, who is in hiding and declared a proclaimed offender, have also been scrutinised and accepted, as have those of Salman Akram Raja, a senior

counsel and key member of Imran Khan’s legal team.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2023