The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the Election Commission of Pakistan's decision to withdraw the symbol of 'bat' from the party.
In its petition, the PTI has listed the ECP and those who had challenged the party's intraparty elections as respondents.
The PTI has contended that those who had challenged their intra-party elections were, in fact, not party members. Hence, they had no standing to challenge the party's elections, and subsequently, there was no cause for the party's electoral symbol to be withdrawn.
PTI's intra-party elections had been challenged by the party's disgruntled founding member, Akbar S Babar. Babar has previously challenged PTI's source of funding under former chairperson Imran Khan.
The party further argued that ECP is now empowered to determine the procedure for intra-party elections. Thus, ECP's decision on PTI's intra-party elections should be declared null and void.
PTI urged the court to form a bench comprising senior judges of the court and to urgently hear their application.
Last week, the ECP declared PTI's intra-party elections null and void based on the procedure listed in PTI's constitution. As a consequence, the ECP voided Barrister Gohar Khan's election as PTI chairperson, while it also withdrew PTI's electoral symbol, 'bat'.
In a list of registered parties for elections issued subsequently, PTI was listed as a party, but the field for its chairperson was kept empty.