By The South Asia Times

PESHAWAR - A Pakistani court on Tuesday foiled the country’s Election Commission efforts to kick out former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party from the upcoming poll.

A signal member bench of Peshawar High Court Justice Kamran Hayat suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan's decision of December 22 of snatching the election symbol from PTI and declared their intra-party election null and void.

The court suspended the ECP decision and ordered to restore the election symbol “bat” of PTI.

“Today is a big day for the nation as the court granted justice to the nation of Pakistan,” Barrister Ali Zafar, lawyer of PTI told reporters.

He added that the ECP decision was against the constitution of Pakistan and they targeted PTI, and wanted to deprive them of over 200 reserve seats across the country. 

PTI’s  Chairman Barrister Gohar also welcomed the court verdict and said the election commission decision was part of a conspiracy to confuse PTI support.

“We are grateful to the judiciary who give us justice today,” he said.

Currently, PTI is the most popular party in the country and enjoys over 70% public support across Pakistan, according to different social media surveys.

PTI claimed that the caretaker government in Punjab and some other parts of the country snatched nomination papers from their candidates using police force and now trying to abduct approvers and seconders of their candidates.

Dozens of videos appeared on social media showing the police barring PTI leaders and supporters from entering the election authorities’ offices to submit their nomination papers. 

The provincial election commission of Punjab province also wrote a letter to the Punjab chief secretary and expressed concern over barring PTI candidates from submission of their nomination papers by police.

PTI called it pre-polling rigging and said the caretaker government trying to escape former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party PMLN from defeat in the upcoming election, scheduled on Feb. 8.