ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court said if intra-party elections are not held in a political party it severs its relationship with its members and renders a party a mere name without meaning or substance.

The court on Thursday issued the detailed judgment of its order on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) election symbol of “cricket bat” case.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, on January 13 had set aside the Peshawar High Court 10th January 2024 judgment and upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s order dated 22nd December 2023.

Intra-party polls held in accordance with party’s constitution: PTI

The 38-page judgment, authored by Justice Faez, stated that in the instant case, no one sought to deprive the PTI of an election symbol; not the ECP, the federal government nor any political party.

The ECP not once but repeatedly had called for the holding of intra-party elections in the PTI and had clearly spelt out the consequences if elections were not held.

The court clarified that in the present case, it is not delving into the mode and manner in which intra-party elections are held. “We have restricted ourselves to inquiring and determining whether intra-party elections were at all held in PTI,” the judgment said. “Once it is established that intra-party elections had not been held, legitimate questions arise how important party offices are being occupied,” it added.

The judgment said that the laws of Pakistan enacted by Parliament must be abided by, including by judges of the superior courts, whose oath of office also requires adherence therewith. Unless a law, or any provision thereof, is challenged and is found to contravene the Constitution and declared unconstitutional, it must be given effect to.

The Elections Act became law on 2 October 2017 and during the last six years, no successful challenge has been thrown to it or with regard to any of its provisions.

It was argued that, because clause (4) of Article 17 was removed by the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010 intra-party elections is no longer a requirement, is fallacious.

The judgment said; “This spurious contention, if accepted, may lead to devastating consequences. The same amendment to the Constitution had also removed the proviso to clause (2) of Article 17, which also proscribed advocating ‘hatred or animosity’, therefore, if the same obtuse reasoning is applied then a political party can now advocate hatred and animosity.”

“Let us further assume that there was a provision in the Constitution requiring that election symbols be provided to political parties and a constitutional amendment did away with this requirement but incorporated it in legislation. The change would not mean that a political party was no longer entitled to an election symbol.”

“Article 17 of the Constitution also does not specifically mention the holding of elections. On the basis of the same flawed reasoning it could be contended that there was no requirement to hold elections in the country. However, there can be no doubt that elections must always be held and it is the Fundamental Right of every citizen, who fulfills the stipulated criteria, to be able to contest elections and to vote.”

The judgment said that the Elections Act, 2017 was promulgated by a democratically elected Parliament, which recognizes the importance of political parties and requires that general elections be held on party basis. The Elections Act seeks to strengthen political parties and mandates that intra-party elections must be held in every political party.

The Court said if a political party does not periodically hold intra-party elections the consequences for not holding them are mentioned therein (Act), which is the party not being eligible to get its election symbol.

It noted that the PTI as a consequence of not holding intra-party elections became ineligible to be allocated an election symbol. The sole responsibility for which lies on those running the affairs of the PTI, who did not want democracy in the party.

They unilaterally and arbitrarily took over a political party in utter disregard of the eight hundred and fifty thousand stated members of the PTI. It said because of their actions and by negating the very fundamentals of democracy, that is, not holding elections, the party suffered and was rendered ineligible to receive its election symbol.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024