LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday referred a petition, filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) authority to withdraw a political party’s election symbol, to the LHC chief justice with a request to fix the matter before a larger bench for further hearing.
The court held that identical petitions were already pending before the larger bench, therefore, it would be appropriate that the present petition should also be heard by the bench.
Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, heard the petition filed by PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan and other leaders, challenging ECP proceedings and notice.
During the proceedings, the petitioners’ counsel answered various court queries about the PTI intra-party election and jurisdiction, and requested to refer the petition to a larger bench.
The petitioners’ had argued that Section 215 of the Elections Act 2017, which governs a party’s eligibility to obtain election symbols, violates the Constitution. They cont
ended that the right to contest elections under a common symbol cannot be taken away from a political party’s candidates. They also argued that the ECP, as a constitutional body, is not a court or tribunal, and any power it wrongly assumes to infringe upon fundamental rights is illegal under Article 8 of the Constitution.