PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court on 13th January set aside a Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision suspending the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) earlier order against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) that revoked the party’s bat election symbol. This means that PTI will not be able to use their iconic bat symbol. This decision is a landmark decision and will be ranked among the many controversial decisions taken by the apex court. While announcing the decision, Chief Justice of Pakistan Faez Isa stated that the plea in Peshawar High Court was inadmissible as a single case cannot proceed in two High Courts at the same time.
The verdict said PTI did not present evidence of holding transparent intra-party elections as all political parties are bound to hold free and fair intra-party elections. According to some legal experts the decision is legally and constitutionally correct but politically it is a controversial decision that will be criticized by all legal and political analysts and experts. Lawyer Reema Omar said the court’s verdict was “excessive, punitive——and a huge blow to our fundamental rights” Jibran Nasir lawyer and human rights activist and himself an election candidate regretted that the decision will disenfranchise “tens of millions of voters across Pakistan”
In this age of severe political polarization and a fear of systemic collapse this decision seems to be adding fuel to the raging fires of instability, confusion and chaos. The political instability today has made it very difficult for the present or the future govt. after elections to deal effectively with the multiple political and economic challenges faced by the nation.
At the same time nobody can justify the failure of the PTI to conduct transparent intra party election and there cannot be two views about the importance of intra party elections which was repeatedly pointed out by the three member bench of the supreme court hearing the petition of the Election Commission, but this important criteria should not appear to be applied selectively.
It is of course mandatory for all political parties to hold transparent intra party elections for democracy to function and to fulfill the requirements of the ECP. There were many flaws and legal loop holes in the elections conducted by the PTI but the fact is that elections conducted by other political parties also leave a lot to be desired.
In this country most political parties are family owned enterprises and run like private limited companies there appears to be no concept of intra party elections and intra party elections are just a smoke screen to meet the demands of the Election commission or to fulfill a legal obligation. The Election Commission has to date never questioned the elections by other political parties. In the recent case of the Awami National Party the ECP just imposed a fine on the party for not conducting elections and the party was ordered to hold elections by 10th May and the party symbol was not taken away from them. Mirza Moiz Beg another eminent Lawyer pointed out that the ECP decision to strip the PTI of its electoral symbol and the Supreme Court affirmation “appears to be inconsistent with the election act and the Supreme Court’s own judgment in the District Bar Rawalpindi case” he went on to add “Section 208(5) of the Elections Act for instance, states that where a party fails to conduct elections within time, such party shall be liable to a fine” he explained “given that the legislature failed to add any more penalties in section 208, the ECP’s action against PTI seems beyond the mandate of the law.
More over section 215 of the 2017 act read with section 209 only obliges a party to submit a certificate affirming that it has conducted intra party polls according to the law and its own constitution” Faisal Siddiqui, a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court, criticized the decision. “This decision in the ‘PTI bat symbol case’ will join the ranks of the notorious ‘Maulvi Tamizuddin case’ as a decision which, by hiding behind the smokescreen of legal technicalities, has fatally damaged democratic constitutionalism,” he said, linking the court order with that of ‘political engineering’ in 2018 polls.
The three member bench headed by the CJP also heard different complainants, including Akbar S. Babar and others, who apprised the bench that they were the ‘original members’ of the party and that they were denied the chance to contest intra-party polls.
Referring to the SC decision a founding member of the PTI Akbar S Babur contended that the verdict would establish a new direction, He said that his efforts had been focused on enabling all deserving party leaders to rise in the ranks and this decision will facilitate that.
Akbar S Babur was one of the petitioners who challenged the PTI intra party elections. It is a sad fact that the Election Commission by stripping the PTI of its election symbol on technical grounds forced its candidates to contest as “independents” to the great dismay of the PTI supporters all over the country.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
Email: tariq.aqil@headstart.edu.pk
views expressed are writer’s own.
