PTI withdraws SC petition for level playing field

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday withdrew its petition from the Supreme Court seeking a level playing field in the upcoming general elections.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Mussarat Hilali, heard the case.

As the hearing of the PTI’s appeal began in the Supreme Court on Monday, PTI’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa said the party would like to go to the people’s court for the survival of democracy and told CJP: “Thank you very much.”

CJP Qazi Faez Isa asked: “Do you want to pursue the case or not?”

The PTI lawyer replied that he had been instructed to withdraw the application. “We came to you for a level playing field for fair and transparent elections,” he remarked, adding that people had been allotted symbols like glass, eggplant, bowl etc.

“We have been humiliated,” the lawyer said and added ECP can only take back the electoral symbol of the party, but here, a political party is being kept out from Parliamentary politics.

In response, CJP Isa said whether they wanted to accept the court’s decision or not was their choice, adding that the judges should not be blamed for the court’s verdict.

We had been continuously asking PTI to show the evidence about holding intra-party elections, but you failed, the top judge remarked. A decision has been already given in the level playing field case, the court can give orders but cannot act as government, CJP Isa told Khosa.