It was much expected by a majority of the PTI supporters that Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf (PTI) would not get his symbol of ‘Bat.’ It was also an assumption that the Supreme Court under its influence will not allocate symbol to PTI.
Whereas astute jurists after observing the proceedings in the court were quite sure that PTI has no case for the allotment of a symbol and intraparty election was not held according to the rules and regulations. Moreover, PTI lawyers could not provide sufficient evidence about the occurrence of intra-party elections in the proceedings of the Supreme Court. Moreover, it was also found that there was no victimization as PTI was not singled out whereas more than 13 political parties were not allocated symbols because they had not held intraparty elections.
It also transpired that since PTI was in power, the Election Commission of Pakistan was repeatedly reminding the party leadership to hold intraparty elections so that an essential requirement could be met.
Thirdly, 14 PTI members approached the Supreme Court and pleaded that they were not involved in intra-party elections, whereas it was a mandatory requirement that intraparty elections should be held transparently and fairly.
Now it is presumed that this decision of the Supreme Court has paved the way for the Pakistan Muslim League to form the government and the last hurdle has been removed.
On the other hand, PTI leadership and its workers are still confident that they will find a way out of this situation. Normally ballot papers in neighboring country India as well as other countries, reflect the names of the political parties along with the party symbol whereas in Pakistan’s ballot papers, only the name of the candidate and symbols are printed. It might be difficult for illiterate voters to read out the names of the candidates because the recognition of the symbol was the easier way to vote. At the same time, the new generation that has grown up during this PTI tenure are not illiterate so they will find it not difficult to vote for a candidate who is contesting from the PTI platform. They are confident that in each constituency, the voters understand who is who and which party the candidate belongs. To counter this situation, the opposing political parties will find another way and they will try to create confusion that the voters will be baffled.
To conclude the outcome of the Supreme Court, proceedings, and the fate of PTI for not getting the symbol of a bat, we can say the Supreme Court of Pakistan decided purely on merit as the lawyer belonging to PTI failed to convince that intraparty election was held according to rules and regulations; At the same time, they failed to convince that why they had filed to petitions on the same subject in two different high courts. whereas they have simultaneously filed petitions in two different High Courts of Punjab and KPK and concealed this fact from Peshawar High Court that the petition is also pending in Lahore High Court on the same matter, and they had hidden this fact from Peshawar High CourtHad the Peshawar High Court known this fact, it would have never allowed the PTI petition.
