Pakistan's Election Commission (ECP) has taken its legal battle to the country's Supreme Court against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict that invalidated the ECP's decision to declare the organisational polls in Imran Khan's party as unconstitutional and revoked the cricket 'bat' electoral symbol. The ECP's move comes as a response to the PTI party filing a contempt of court petition against the ECP for failing to comply with the PHC's order.

Today it would be extremely difficult for Supreme Court to grant a stay order to #ECP against the PHC decision allotting the bat symbol to #PTI. The reason that it is a time sensitive issue and final list of allotted symbols to candidates has to be issued on 13th Jan Saturday…

— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) January 12, 2024

The PHC's decision was in favor of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, ruling that the ECP's actions were unconstitutional and directing the electoral body to return the cricket 'bat' electoral symbol to the PTI and upload the party's certificate of internal elections on its website. However, the ECP has challenged this ruling, further complicating the election process ahead of the general elections scheduled for February 8.

In response to the ECP's move, the PTI filed a contempt of court petition against the ECP for failing to comply with the PHC's orders, alleging that the ECP's actions constituted contempt of court. These legal battles add a layer of complexity to the electoral process in Pakistan and highlight the tensions between the ECP and PTI as the country prepares for its upcoming general elections.