ISLAMABAD  -  In a major political development ahead of February 8 general elec­tions, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared the intra-party elections conducted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) null and void thus withdraw the party’s election symbol [Bat]. The commission ruled that the PTI did not hold the polls in line with its constitution, under the Election Act, 2017. Under the rule, the par­ty stands ineligible to obtain the election symbol of ‘Bat’. A five-member bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Si­kandar Sultan Raja, gave the de­cision on the petitions challeng­ing PTI’s intra-party elections. Other members of the bench included ECP members Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muham­mad Jatoi, Babar Hassan Bhar­wana and Justice (r) Ikramullah Khan. The reserved verdict was announced a day after the Pe­shawar High Court directed the ECP to decide the petitions filed against PTI’s intra-party elec­tions in accordance with the law. The commission mentioned in its verdict that “the PTI did not comply with the commission’s directions rendered therein or­der dated 23rd November, 2023 and failed to hold intra-party election in accordance with PTI prevailing Constitution, 2019 and Election Act, 2017, and Elec­tion Rules, 2017. 

Therefore, the certificate dated 4th December, 2023 and Form-65 filed by the alleged Chairman, is hereby regretted and rejected accordingly. 

The provisions of Section 215 of the Election Act, 2017 are hereby invoked and PTI is here­by declared ineligible to obtain the Election Symbol, for which they have applied for”.

The ECP rendered the intra-party polls as invalidated hence, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who became the party’s chairman, would no longer be the party’s top head. The ECP had taken no­tice of the intra-party elections of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), during which Barrister Gohar Ali Khan secured a com­fortable victory as the party’s new chairman. These elections took place on Dec 3, following the ECP’s declaration that the intra-party polls held in June 2022 were null and void. The ECP provided the PTI with a 20-day time to conduct fresh elec­tions, warning that failure to do so could lead ineligibility.

The electoral watchdog’s deci­sion to deprive the Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) of its election symbol ‘bat’ came as a serious blow for the beleaguered party of former prime minister Imran Khan that is already struggling to field its candidates for the February 8 elections. As a conse­quence of the decision taken un­der Section 215 of the Election Act 2017, all PTI candidates will now contest the general election as independents, each with a dif­ferent election symbol, thus dis­tracting the party supporters and followers to vote in favour of its candidates.

The PTI pins high hopes over the superior judiciary expect­ing that the court will overturn the decision to provide it a level playing field in the contest. The party is optimistic that it has time till January 13 – the date fixed by the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) for allot­ment of election symbols to can­didates – to get some relief from the higher courts, preferably the Supreme Court. Unless the supe­rior judiciary overturns the ECP order that stripped the PTI of its election symbol, the decision has practically sealed the fate of the party as far as the next gen­eral elections are concerned. 

All those PTI candidates who will run as independents are not bound to follow the par­ty discipline and they can join any party to sit either in the Na­tional Assembly or the respec­tive provincial assembly. Con­sequently, the relevant Articles of the Constitution barring the lawmakers from floor-crossing will not apply on them. Political analyst Zafarullah Khan taking on X said the impact of the de­cision in simple words was that “PTI is no longer an enlisted po­litical party with the ECP”. 

The second impact of with­drawing the election symbol, he said, was that if ECP kept ‘bat’ as an available symbol on its list, then it may be allotted to inde­pendent candidates in various constituencies, or any political party can also ask for it. 

Zafarullah said the decision was a setback for PTI in anoth­er way that while now it was not enlisted as an election sym­bol, it couldn’t submit any list of candidates for reserved seats of women and minorities at the national and provincial level.

Lastly, the election watchdog decision will also affect the PTI in the Senate elections that are due in March next year. The Elec­toral College for the Senate elec­tion is national and provincial assemblies. The analysts sug­gest that PTI could partner with a smaller and lesser-known par­ty and compete under a shared and single election symbol. This option too will not lessen prob­lems for the PTI in future.