ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top poll body on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict that annulled its decision to declare as “unconstitutional” the organisational polls in the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party and revoked cricket ‘bat’ electoral symbol. On the other hand, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party filed a contempt of court petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over its failure to comply with the order issued on the party’s petition.
The developments come ahead of general elections scheduled on February 8.
“The Peshawar High Court decision should be declared illegal. PTI did not hold intra-party elections as per the Election Act,” the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said in its plea submitted to the top court, according to a report in Geo News.
The petition comes after sources told Geo News that ECP had held a meeting to review the PHC decision and shared that the meeting had reviewed options whether to approach the Supreme Court or not.
In a major relief for PTI, the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday declared as unconstitutional the election commission’s decision revoking the jailed former premier’s party’s cricket ‘bat’ electoral symbol and rejecting its organisational polls.
It also directed the electoral body to return the PTI party its iconic cricket ‘bat’ electoral symbol back and upload the party’s certificate of internal elections on its website, Dawn newspaper reported.
Geo News said, minutes before the ECP plea was filed in the apex court, the PTI filed a contempt of court petition against the ECP over its failure to comply with the order issued on the party’s petition against the electoral watchdog’s decision on its election symbol and intra-party polls.
In its petition, the PTI has contended that despite the PHC orders issued a day earlier the ECP failed to upload the certificate on the PTI’s intra-party elections on its website. It added that failure to do so falls under contempt of court, Geo News added.