PTI looking for strategy after losing ‘bat’

PTI looking for strategy after losing ‘bat’

ISLAMABAD: Following a Supreme Court ruling on Saturday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is actively strategizing in the aftermath of losing its iconic election symbol, the bat.

During an interview with Shahzad Iqbal on Geo News program Naya Pakistan on Sunday, Hamid Khan, a core committee member of PTI and one of the senior lawyers representing the party in the apex court proceedings, stated that a decision on whether to file a petition for a review of the court’s verdict would be made “after the release of the detailed order.”

He highlighted that the party not only lost its electoral symbol but also found itself without a fair playing field. He emphasized, “There isn’t any playing field, let alone a level playing field.”

Following a daylong hearing on Saturday, the apex court overturned the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling that had granted the party its electoral symbol. The court upheld the December 22 decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which prohibited PTI from using the bat as its electoral symbol for the upcoming polls due to irregularities in their internal polls.

Hamid Khan argued, “The electoral symbol has been taken away to prevent us [PTI] from getting the reserved seats.” He contended that the intra-party election, the focal point of the dispute between the poll organizing body and PTI, is an internal matter as per the Elections Act 2017.

Hamid asserted that other parties were granted their desired electoral symbols after accepting the validity of their internal elections. While presenting all essential documents for the party polls before the apex court, he acknowledged that scrutinizing small details might inevitably lead to finding faults in each case.