ISLAMABAD: The ECP has though announced that it will implement the Supreme Court’s recent order relating to allocation of reserved seats, the press release issued by the Commission actually is a clear rebuttal of the apex court’s decision.
The SC during the hearing of the case and also in its judgment had said that the ECP by misinterpreting the judgment of this court dated Jan 13, 2024, which was regarding non-holding of intra-party elections in PTI, had wrongly mentioned the said candidates of the PTI as independents.
The ECP’s press release, issued on Friday after two days of deliberations on the SC order, said that the Commission did not misinterpret any decision. It said that the Commission had declared the PTI’s intra-party election as invalid against which the political party had approached different forums but the Commission’s decision was upheld.
The Commission, while sticking to its decision, said that since the PTI’s intra-party elections were not declared valid by the Commission, therefore, as a logical consequence and as per Election Act the election symbol of “bat” was withdrawn.
The ECP press release without referring to Para 7 and Para 8 of the SC majority judgment, stated its position besides pointing out that the PTI was neither a party in Sunni Ittehad Council’s appeal before the Election Commission nor before the Peshawar High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.