Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf activists hold a giant cricket bat with the colours and initials of the party during a rally. File photo

In a major relief to the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) ahead of Feb.8 general elections, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday declared as unconstitutional the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision revoking the PTI’s ‘cricket bat’ electoral symbol after rejecting its intra-party polls.

The PHC directed the ECP to hand the PTI the bat symbol back and upload its certificate of internal elections on the ECP website. The decision comes shortly after the party withdrew from the Supreme Court (SC) its appeal seeking the restoration of its electoral symbol.

Justice Ejaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali presided over the hearing. At the very outset, Naveed Akhtar, the counsel for Jehangir from Charsadda, stated that the matter was also fixed for hearing before the SC.

At this, Justice Anwar recalled that the PTI had said it would not pursue the matter there. PTI lawyer Syed Ali Zafar also reassured the court about the same.

Advocate Qazi Jawwad, the counsel for Yousaf Ali, stated that his client had served as the party’s district secretary general and wanted to contest the upcoming general elections but "was not given the chance.”

Justice Anwar observed that if the petitioner was challenging the PTI’s intra-party elections, he should have sought that the polls be held again but did not do so.

"If you were from the party, then you should have objected to revoking the party symbol but you did not do so,” the PHC judge noted. The lawyer responded by reiterating that his client was not given a chance to take part in the intra-party polls. Jawwad argued that the PHC could only review provincial matters while the intra-party polls were held countrywide, to which Justice Anwar asked if the PTI should have approached all high courts. Justice Ali wondered why a case could not be filed in the high court if the elections were also held in Peshawar.

Jawwad said that the Lahore High Court had dismissed a petition, to which Justice Anwar replied that the LHC had said the matter was sub judice before the PHC, hence it could not interfere.

The judge asked if any intra-party polls had been held without an electoral symbol, to which Jawwad answered that there had been "non-party elections and even if parties were dissolved, new ones were created.” At this, Justice Anwar remarked that the said events had taken place during martial law.

The judge then inquired the counsel whether he thought the PTI should get its electoral symbol back, to which Jawwad said he "supported action according to the law.” He added that he wanted the intra-party polls to be held again.

At this point during the hearing, Tariq Afridi, the counsel for Shah Fahad, began presenting his arguments before the PHC.

He contended that the high court could not hear the matter as its jurisdiction had been stated in Article 199 (jurisdiction of high court) of the Constitution.

On Dec.22, the ECP had decided against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the Feb.8 election, saying that it had failed to hold intra-party polls in accordance with its prevailing constitution and election laws.

The PTI had approached the PHC against the ECP order on Dec.26 and a single-member bench restored the electoral symbol of the party till Jan.9.

On Dec.30, the electoral watchdog had filed a review petition in the PHC, arguing that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. Days later, in a major blow for the PTI, the high court had restored the ECP order, stripping the party of its symbol again. Subsequently, the PTI moved the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling.