Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawyer and leader Barrister Gohar Khan Wednesday said the party has withdrawn its petition to secure the “bat” symbol from the Supreme Court with hopes of receiving a favourable verdict from the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on the matter.
“Today, our petition was fixed at the Supreme Court, but we have withdrawn it,” he said, adding that the decision from PHC will be issued in the party’s favour.
The PTI leader’s comments came during his conversation with journalists outside the apex court in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, a two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court is conducting the hearing of PTI’s writ petition challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision declaring the intra-party election as null and void and revoking their symbol “bat” — a sign that depicts the party’s founder, Imran Khan’s former life of cricket.
Gohar said that the PHC verdict is expected to be announced at 11am today and hoped that the decision will be in his party’s favour.
The SC, too, dismissed the PTI’s plea on grounds of withdrawal. PTI lawyer Gohar Khan appeared at the court to inform the Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa about withdrawing the petition.
“PTI is withdrawing its request,” he said, addressing CJP Isa.
The chief justice, however, enquired him about Hamid Khan, a senior lawyer and leader of the Imran Khan-founded party.
“Our case is currently in Peshawar High Court,” Hamid said and told the court that he is not the party’s lawyer in the case.
The court while dismissing the petition stated that none of PTI’s lawyers have objected to the withdrawal of the petition.
In a major blow to the PTI, the electoral watchdog had last month stripped it of its iconic electoral symbol and declared its intra-party elections unlawful in the decision over a former PTI member, Akbar S Babar’s petition, claiming that the party did not stage the elections in line with the rules.
The party challenged the decision and subsequently acquired a stay against the ECP order, in a major relief that saw restoration of the party’s bat symbol — till a final decision on the petition.
The court served ECP a notice and directed the body to upload certificates containing PTI intra-party elections on its website, while scheduling the hearing of the petition by double bench for today (January 9).
However, the election watchdog on December 30 filed a review petition in the high court, upon which the court restored the ECP’s December 22 order and withdrew the interim relief granted to the PTI.
This prompted the party to move the Supreme Court against the restoration of the ECP ruling, the plea that the party withdrew today.
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