KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and federal as well as provincial authorities on a petition of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seeking free and fair election under judicial oversight through appointment of judicial officers as district returning officers.

Initially, the PTI in its petition had also sought directives for respondents to give level playing field to all political parties for upcoming general elections and to retain its electoral symbol. However, the counsel for petitioners on Wednesday submitted that issue of electoral symbol will be agitated in Islamabad.

The two-judge bench, headed by acting Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, questioned the maintainability of the petition, but issued pre-admission notices to the ECP, secretary cabinet division, chief secretary Sindh and other respondents as well as federal and provincial law officers with direction to file comments/replies till Dec 14.

The detained PTI Sindh president Haleem Adil Shaikh and retired Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi, through their counsel, had petitioned the SHC after the ECP had directed the PTI to hold intra-party election in 20 days in order to retain its electoral symbol bat.

However, the during the hearing, the lawyer for petitioners, barrister Ali Tahir, informed the bench that he was not pressing the issue of electoral symbol, one of the prayer clauses of the petition, as the counsel submitted that a plea in this regard will be filed in Islamabad.

The acting chief justice said that the court will look into the matter regarding the party’s electoral symbol at the next hearing.

However, he remarked that the issues of election were apparently related to policy matters and as to how the court could intervene in it.

Justice Ahmed also noted that the matter regarding holding of election did not come with the category of fundamental rights.

He further remarked that the petitioners should have approached the ECP before filing such petition. The court, he said, could only respond to such petition, if the ECP would not have entertained the request.

Citing the federation through cabinet secretary, chief secretary and the ECP as respondents, the petitioners alleged a “complete connivance” between respondents indicated an effort to oust PTI from elections.

They submitted that the PTI faced numerous challenges, including cases against its leadership, restrictions on freedom of speech, holding conventions and assembly and demolition of houses of the party’s leaders, aimed to sideline the party from participating freely in the elections and a systematic effort to curb its influence and suppress the fundamental rights of its members.

Also, the ECP on Nov 23 ruled against the PTI, warning it of losing its electoral symbol if it did not re-conduct intra-party election within a tight 20-day time frame and submit its comprehensive report within next seven days.

The petitioners submitted that they were under severe apprehension that all that was done to give the election symbol of PTI to another “favorite” party of respondents, whereas Section 215(3) of the Elections Act, 2017 said: “An election symbol already allocated to a political party shall not be allocated to any other political party or combination of political parties”.

They said that the democratic ideals enshrined in the Constitution had been tarnished in the country due to alleged manipulations and financial influences, eroding the foundation of the democratic system.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023