- Chief election commissioner, secretary ECP and others made respondents
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday filed a contempt plea in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over tis failure to implement the court’s order in electoral symbol ‘bat’ case.
A day earlier, the PHC had declared “illegal” the ECP’s decision to revoke PTI’s iconic ‘bat’ electoral symbol and reject its intra-party polls.
In the short order, the PHC had termed the ECP order as “illegal, without any lawful authority and of no legal effect”.
“The ECP is directed to forthwith publish the certificate [of intra-party polls] filed by the petitioner on its website in terms of section 209 of the Elections Act, 2017,” the bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali said in a brief order.
Moreover, it affirmed PTI’s entitlement to the election symbol under sections 215 and 217, along with other applicable provisions of the Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017.
The PTI, in its plea, has made the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, secretary election commission, and members of the ECP respondents.
The petition stated that “this action by the ECP is considered contempt of court, hindering PTI’s regular electoral process, as evident from the court’s explicit instructions”.
The plea urged the court to punish the respondents as per the law for not complying with the yesterday’s orders.
The petition stated that the election commission had not “issued the certificate to PTI on its website” despite yesterday’s directives, which amounted to contempt of court.
