The year 2023 brought more problems for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its leaders. Following a number of defections, the party also lost its election symbol, albeit temporarily, in a ruling by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

On December 22, a five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, had declared PTI’s intra-party elections unlawful. “It is held that the PTI has not complied with our directions rendered therein order dated 23rd November 2023 and failed to hold the intra-party election by PTI prevailing constitution, 2019, and Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017,” the 11-page ECP order said.

The intra-party polls had been challenged by Akbar S Babar, a former PTI member, who claimed that the PTI had not elected Barrister Gohar Ali as its new chairman in line with the rules.

Babar, a founding member of the PTI and once close to Imran Khan, had sought fresh intra-party polls, claiming that he wanted to contest the elections but had found no one at the PTI’s Islamabad secretariat to issue him the nomination papers.

The PTI then challenged the ECP verdict in the Peshawar High Court. On December 26, the PHC suspended the ECP order. Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel directed that notices be issued to all respondents for January 9 and suspended the ECP’s December 22 order. The ECP officials are reviewing the PHC order and could file an appeal before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Talking to The News on Sunday, PTI lawyer, Ali Zafar said: “The ECP verdict was unconstitutional and against the spirit of democracy. It accommodated the petition of Akbar S Babar, who had lost his party membership ages ago. How can he claim to be a PTI stakeholder? How could the ECP have taken up his petition? The ECP should have used the same yardstick for other political parties. For instance, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, too, had not announced the venue for the party’s election or its schedule. It had just issued a press release to announce that the elections had been held.” He said that a division bench of the Peshawar High Court will resume the hearing on the party election and symbol case next week.

Khan and the bat symbol are essential for a PTI victory in the upcoming elections. Khan, through his counsel, has filed his nomination papers from several constituencies. The nominations might be rejected because of his Toshakhana case conviction. The Supreme Court has already rejected a plea to set aside the disqualification.

Before running into legal troubles, the PTI had faced a string of high-level defections. Most of its top leaders, including Pervez Khattak, Mehmood Khan, Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar and Shireen Mazari had left the party in the wake of the May 9 riots and the ensuing crackdown. Khattak later formed his own political party, comprising mostly PTI defectors. Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party, led by Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan, also consists of politicians who were once followers of Imran Khan.

Despite such setbacks, the PTI failed to put its house in order. It remained embroiled in procedural as well as technical tussles with the ECP.

In another development on Thursday, the Islamabad High Court ordered to halt the proceedings of the cipher case till January 11. Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb was hearing the petition moved by the PTI against Imran Khan’s in camera trial in the case. Earlier, the court had rejected the PTI’s request for a stay order.

Informing the IHC about the alleged irregularities in the cipher case, Khan’s lawyers said that the first information report in the case had been lodged before the filing of a complaint which was against the law.

Khan and the bat symbol are essential for a PTI victory in the upcoming elections. Khan, through his counsel, has filed nomination papers from several constituencies. However these might be rejected because of his Toshakhana case conviction. The Supreme Court has already rejected a plea to set aside the disqualification.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst.

His X handle: @BukhariMubasher