The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the intra-court appeal filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the PTI’s intra-party elections and election symbol case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Justice Ijaz Khan of the PHC heard the appeal.

During the hearing, counsel for the ECP said that despite the fact that the election commission, and not the federal government, was a party to the case, the single bench of the high court did not listen to its point of view. “The court granted ‘stay’ in the case without listening to the ECP,” he said.

Justice Ijaz Khan, however, remarked that he could not give a decision in the case right now since a division bench of the high court was due to take up the case for the hearing on January 9.

The ECP’s lawyer prayed to the judge to withdraw the high court’s decision of suspension of the election commission’s verdict for the time being, and leave the rest to the division bench.

The counsel said that the ECP had issued a notice to the PTI on the petitions challenging its intra-party elections. “But questions were raised over the jurisdiction of the election commission,” he said, adding, “It was argued that the verdict it gave in the case was unconstitutional.”

He went on to say that the ECP was an independent institution, and that it had the power to give decisions on its own.

The counsel further said that the PTI had filed a similar petition in the Lahore High Court. “How it can move another high court when already another high court is seized with the hearing of the same case. There are verdicts by the Supreme Court which can be cited in support of this argument.”

The electoral body had filed a review petition at the high court against its December 26 decision which had suspended the ECP's order and restored the party's 'bat' symbol till a final decision on the matter. 

The ECP, in its order, had declared PTI's intra-party polls "illegal" and stripped it of using the 'bat' symbol. Following its order, the former ruling party approached the PHC seeking to restore its party symbol ahead of the general elections slated for February 8. 

Reporter: Amir Shehzad