ISLAMABAD: Advo­ca­­te Salman Akram Raja, who aspires to contest the upcoming general elections from the National Assembly constituency NA-128 Lahore, approa­ched the Supreme Court on Friday to seek recognition that he is contesting the polls as a PTI ticket holder and not as an independent candidate.

Mr Raja pleaded that he was not seeking any delay in the forthcoming elections or any amendment to the ballot paper itself, but his sole purpose in filing the petition was to be recognised as a PTI candidate.

The petitioner had submitted his nomination papers under Section 60(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after declaring his affiliation with PTI and expressing his intent to contest the general elections as a PTI candidate.

The candidate has challenged the Jan 25, 2024 rejection of his plea stating that the high court’s decision was contrary to the facts and the applicable law, illegal, unlawful, violative of the fundamental rights as guaranteed under Article 17(2) of the Constitution.

The petitioner pleaded that though PTI has been deprived of a single symbol for all its candidates by ECP, its existence and functioning as a political party remain unaffected. The party continues to exist and has not been dissolved.

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Therefore, the fact that PTI candidates may not have a single symbol does not imply that they have ceased to be party candidates.

The treatment being meted out to the petitioner since he has been categorised as independent candidate by Form 33 as well as the Explanation to Rule 94 of the Election Act is unlawful, illegal, and liable to be set aside and declared ultra vires to the Constitution, the petition argued. The same was challenged by the petitioner before the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The petition said the ballot paper contains only the name and the symbol of the candidate and not their party affiliation — and this fact was confirmed by the ECP, the petition argued.

There is no prospect of any delay to the election if the petition is allowed, the petition contended explaining that the petitioner was seeking that Form 33 issued by the ECP be revised in time before the polling day, as the effect of the same was to disenfranchise the petitioner from contesting the election.

The petition contended that he filed his certificate of nomination as party candidate of PTI with the returning officer on Jan 13, 2024, and later was listed among the final list of candidates issued by the PTI of 234 of the total 266 National Assembly seats on its website. Therefore, the petitioner is not an independent candidate, rather a candidate of PTI in the general elections, 2024.

The petition further contended that the electoral symbol is simply one manifestation of the fact that a political party exists for the sake of outreach to the electorate. However, the deprivation of the electoral symbol does not in any way invoke Section 212 of the Election Act, or Article 17(2) of the Constitution, nor does it affect the definition of political party contained in the act.

The Explanation to Rule 94, by limiting political parties to only those parties that have an electoral symbol, is therefore ultra vires of the Election Act. In failing to address this grievance of the petitioner, the high court order has erred in law and is liable to be set aside, the petition said.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2024