By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) instructed its election candidates on Saturday to use the ‘batsman’ symbol of its splinter group, PTI-Nazriati, as a backup plan in case it loses its long-held ‘bat’ symbol in a court case.
The PTI’s electoral symbol, a cricket bat, is at risk of being revoked by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which challenged a high court decision to restore it after the party allegedly violated rules to conduct intra-party polls.
The party issued the directives while the Supreme Court heard the ECP petition challenging the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to restore the PTI’s electoral symbol, the “bat”.
The PTI, led by former prime minister and cricket star Imran Khan, has been using the ‘bat’ symbol since its inception in 1996. It is widely recognised by its supporters and has become a part of the party’s identity.
However, after sensing the danger of losing its iconic symbol, the party had chalked out its plan B: allying with its breakaway faction, PTI-Nazriati, which has the ‘batsman’ symbol, a silhouette of a cricket player holding a bat.
“Whoever has PTI-Nazriati tickets should immediately submit them and take any kind of hindrance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and high courts,” the PTI said in a post on Twitter, its official account.
“After the ECP went to the Supreme Court against the decision of the PHC, the party’s leadership mulled over the option for an alternative electoral symbol,” a source in the PTI told Dawn newspaper. “The need was aggravated after remarks passed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa during a hearing on Friday.”
Dawn reported that PTI officials believe that the “bat” and “batsman” symbols are similar, making it easier for voters to identify with PTI.
“The chairman of PTI-Nazriati, Akhtar Iqbal Dar, had agreed to issue tickets to PTI’s candidates on the symbol of batsman,” it said.
Meanwhile, the electoral watchdog, in a press release, announced an extension of two hours to the deadline for the allotment of the election symbol for political parties.
The ECP noted that it was the last day for the allotment of the electoral symbol.
The ECP also directed returning officers on Saturday to reject applications from party members seeking the election symbol of another party.
“A contesting candidate, before seeking allotment of a prescribed symbol, shall file a declaration before the Returning Officer about his affiliation with a particular political party, if any, along with a certificate from the political party showing that he is that party’s candidate from the constituency,” the ECP said in its order.
“Many applications were submitted to break the law, mislead the Election Commission, and in flagrant violation of the affidavit already given with their nomination papers.”
The ECP said that candidates needed to file an affidavit to verify an oath form as well as prove their affiliation with the political party whose election symbol they were seeking in their applications.
It continued by saying that candidates who belonged to a party and ran for office using another party’s electoral emblem violated the Electoral Act of 2017.
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