PTI withdraws contempt plea against ECP from Supreme Court

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has withdrawn its petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking contempt proceedings against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for violating its order about providing a level-playing field to the party, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

A three-judge apex court bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa and consisting of Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, disposed of the PTI’s petition on Monday after the party withdrew it.

As the apex court resumed hearing the contempt plea, the PTI informed the court that it was withdrawing its petition, saying that the party had “no expectations from the ECP” and was “going to the public”. Subsequently, the court disposed of the plea on the basis of the withdrawal.

There were already calls within the PTI urging party’s legal team not to attend today’s hearing following Supreme Court’s Saturday verdict depriving PTI of its iconic “bat” election symbol.

It may be mentioned here that the same apex court bench which had restored the ECP's decision regarding the withdrawal of PTI's election symbol was scheduled to hear the contempt plea today.

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As the proceedings were set into motion on Monday, PTI’s lawyer Latif Khosa informed the apex court bench that the party would like to go to the people’s court for the survival of democracy and told CJP: “We want to got to the court of 250 million people. Thank you very much.”

CJP Qazi Faez Isa asked: “Do you want to pursue the case or not?”

The PTI lawyer replied that he had been instructed to withdraw the application. “We came to you for a level-playing field for fair and transparent elections. Instead the entire field has been taken away from PTI,” he said and added the PTI people had been allotted symbols like glass, eggplant, bowl etc.

“We have been humiliated,” the PTI lawyer said and added the ECP can only take back the electoral symbol of the party, but here, a political party is being kept out from parliamentary politics.

Khosa told the CJP the court had snatched the field from the PTI and insulted the party. “A party is being banned by evicting it from parliament,” he added. “All the PTI candidates will contest elections as independent candidates and suffer from confusion.”

The CJP, in reaction, said whether they wanted to accept the court’s decision or not was their choice, adding that the judges should not be blamed for the court’s verdict. “We had been continuously asking PTI to show the evidence about holding intra-party elections, but you failed,” the top judge remarked.

“A decision has been already given in the level-playing field case, the court can give orders but cannot act as government,” CJP Isa told Khosa.

Justice Hilali asked if Latif Khosa thought the elections were not going to be transparent. He replied that the elections were totally unfair.

Khosa further said that they rendered sacrifices for the judiciary. At this, the CJP said he should allow the judges to speak too. “It is not appropriate to talk about another case during the proceedings of another case,” CJP Isa remarked.

“Do not blame us for the Supreme Court’s decision,” he added.

Khosa said the court’s decision will destroy democracy. The CJP reminded him that the court had asked them repeatedly to prove the intra-party elections were held. “If you don't like the decision, we can't do anything about it,” the CJP remarked.

Justice Isa further remarked that the court can only pronounce an order and not become the government. He added that police officials were suspended in the case of a raid at PTI leader Barrister Gohar’s house. “Our job is to ensure elections are conducted according to the law,” the chief justice said, adding the court raised the issue of elections and fixed a date in 12 days on the PTI's appeal. 

The Election Commission of Pakistan kept asking the PTI to hold intra-party polls, but to no avail, the CJP said and added “If you have any objection to any other political party, submit a petition.”

The CJP further told the counsel if they did not like the law, they could change it, as the court didn’t make law, only enforced it.

Khosa asked that if the Awami National Party could be returned its election symbol by the ECP, why not the PTI.

The CJP remarked that they found out yesterday that there was still time according to the Awami National Party’s constitution and told Khosa he was destroying all the national institutions.

Khosa further told the court that the leader of the party they had allied with was picked up and forced to do a press conference. He also claimed that preparations are being made to lodge cases against them even for forging alliances. 

Justice Hilali asked if the election commission was not fair and if it was running after just one party and could not see other political parties.

Speaking outside the apex court, PTI lawyer Latif Khosa lamented that the apex court’s verdict of upholding the ECP decision had “destroyed democracy” and was “equivalent to depriving the 25 million Pakistanis of their right of franchise”.

Khosa recalled incidents of arrests as well as those where nomination papers of PTI candidates were snatched. He said in his response to the court, the Islamabad police chief had denied those incidents and asserted that there had been “no unpleasant” events.

Late last month, the PTI had approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan to get a level-playing field in the general elections amid reports of hurdles in the filing of nomination papers.

Filed through lawyer Shoaib Shaheen, the petition had made federal and provincial governments as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) its respondents. “It is most respectfully prayed that this Honourable Court may be graciously pleased to direct the respondents to provide a level playing field to the PTI for free and fair election, in the interest of justice,” the petition said.

The petition also requested the court to order the government to refrain from harassing PTI’s workers and leaders and letting them participate in the election without discrimination.

The petition was filed after a similar complaint regarding the snatching of nomination papers was filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan by the party.

PTI also takes back contempt plea from PHC

The PTI on Monday also withdrew its contempt petition against ECP from the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

PTI lawyers were of the view that after Supreme Court’s verdict on party’s election symbol, this contempt plea has also become ineffective.

Reporters Amanat Gishkori and Amir Shahzad