Our Correspondents January 15, 2024 The electoral symbol of PTI-N ‘Batsman’.
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Faced with the challenge of steering the election ship as independent candidates, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday adopted a novel strategy to connect with voters in the run-up to the February 8 general elections to protect its base and visibility. The party introduced a portal on its official website featuring comprehensive details of all candidates organized by constituency, providing a streamlined method for party workers and voters to access crucial information. The decision to create the portal comes in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s late-night ruling affirming the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) December 22 decision to deprive PTI of its distinctive poll symbol.
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that following the SC’s verdict, party nominees will now contest elections as independent candidates, vowing to get votes in the name of party founder Imran Khan. The ECP has allotted various symbols to the now-independent candidates and issued a list of the allotted symbols. As per the list, PTI’s Waseem Qadir from NA-121 and Sardar Latif Khosa from NA-122 were allotted the symbols of ‘wicket’ and alphabet ‘K’ respectively.
In NA-21, Mujahid Ali has been granted the symbol of the ‘dove’, while in NA-23, Ali Mohammad Khan has been allotted the symbol of the dolphin.Dr Amjad has been assigned the electoral symbol of a ‘tea kettle’ for NA-2 in Swat, ‘tongs’ have been allotted to Salim-ur-Rehman for NA-3, and ‘goat’ is designated for Sohail Sultan on NA-4. Afzal Azim from NA-123 was given the symbol of ‘radio’, while Advocate Zameer from NA-124 was allotted ‘dolphin’ as an electoral symbol. Zaheer Abbas from NA-127 got the symbol of ‘clock’, Salman Akram from NA-128 was allotted ‘racket’, and Mian Azhar from NA-129 with ‘wicket’. Dr Yasmin Rashid from NA-130 got the electoral symbol of ‘laptop’, Nadeem Sherwani from NA-119 got ‘cricket stump’, Sohail Sultan from NA-4 Swat a ‘goat’, Ali Shah Khan from PK-4 was allotted ‘Khusa’ and Advocate Akhtar Khan from PK-5 a ‘pressure cooker’ symbol.
The apex court on Saturday set aside the January 10 order of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), effectively depriving the PTI of its iconic election symbol of the cricket bat in a major blow to the former ruling party ahead of the February 8 general elections.
Talking to the media after the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, PTI lawyers said that following the court verdict, candidates will now contest polls as independents.
They added that PTI has already developed a strategy in this regard and urged the ‘massive’ voter base of the party to not worry about the current circumstances.
A key member of the PTI legal team, Barrister Ali Zafar said the party will fight the election vigorously, even after the apex court’s decision to take the party’s electoral symbol of ‘bat’. Zafar added that the party is still registered and the court has not barred its candidates from contesting the polls. “PTI has above 100 million voters, no one objected to the intra-party elections, but those not in the party did.
None of the 14 petitioners were a part of the party,” he added. Zafar further said that following the top court’s verdict, PTI will lose all reserved seats and will not get any reserved seats in the national or provincial assembly.