THE Supreme Court maintained its time-honoured tradition of doling out justice on the eve of an election, which will eventually affect the entire exercise. On Saturday night, the court decided the PTI had not held proper intra-party elections and could, therefore, no longer take part in the general election as a party. This is not the first time our judges have yielded such influence, and neither will it be the last.
The PTI will now be taking part in the next election with far more disadvantages than just the absence of a common symbol. Consider: in each constituency, the voters will have to remember the correct symbols for the PTI National Assembly candidate and the provincial assembly candidate — both will be different. This will not be easy, especially in the rural constituencies, where literacy rates are low. As a result, the room for mistakes and rejected votes will increase.
Once these candidates get to parliament — if they survive the ongoing harassment, in addition to the absence of the balla — they will not be bound by any party discipline if they choose to stay independent (though there is little guarantee they will be allowed to form a group once elected). Their voting, too, will not be controlled by a party leadership, and they can choose any candidate for chief minister or prime minister, and from any party. As journalist Maria Memon tweeted on Sunday, “Yesterday’s ‘historic’ judgement by the SC........