ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) appears to be in quest of some strategy after losing its iconic election symbol of bat as a result of a Supreme Court ruling on Saturday.
Speaking in Geo News programme Naya Pakistan to host Shahzad Iqbal on Sunday, Hamid Khan, PTI’s core committee member and one of the senior lawyers who represented the party in the apex court proceedings, said the party would decide on whether to file a petition for review of the apex court verdict or not “after the release of detailed order”.
He said the party was not only deprived of its electoral symbol but also the playing field. “There isn’t any playing field, let alone a level playing field,” he added.
After a daylong hearing on Saturday, the apex court set aside the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling giving the party its electoral symbol. It upheld the December 22 decision of the ECP that barred the PTI from keeping bat as its electoral symbol for the upcoming polls due to irregularities in their internal polls.
Hamid Khan said: “The electoral symbol has been taken away to prevent us [PTI] from getting the reserved seats.” He said the intra-party election — the matter which was the bone of contention between the poll organizing body and the PTI — is an internal affair of the party as per the Elections Act 2017.
Hamid contended that other parties were given their desired electoral symbols after accepting their internal elections. He said they had presented all the fundamental documents for the party polls before the apex court, but if small details of the matter are looked into, then finding faults would be inevitable in each case.
The senior counsel also said the authorities concerned could have slapped a fine on the PTI if they found any irregularity like it was done in the case of the Awami National Party (ANP).
About the PTI members who expressed their grievances before the top court on being deprived of the right to contest the intra-party polls, the lawyer said if anyone had any issues regarding their “expulsion” from the party, they could have gone to civil courts.
“The Supreme Court is not supposed to look into the matter of expulsions,” he said, adding that those who opposed the intra-party polls are not party members.
Casting doubts on the transparency of February 8 elections, Hamid said the upcoming elections do not have “credibility”.
“No credibility is left of the polls when the people are deprived of their right to election,” Hamid said.
Meanwhile, terming the SC ruling “controversial” and “deeply” disappointing, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan vowed to file a plea seeking a review of the decision.
Battered by subsequent blows, the PTI leaders expressed the resolve to still contest the polls with all their candidates as independent contenders now, since it no longer has a unified symbol.
The party’s election results have a high probability of facing an impact as different electoral symbols could confuse their voters.
On an electoral map, the PTI leaders appear haphazardly strewn, as the ECP allotted separate electoral symbols to them.
Some of the main PTI leaders who will contest elections on different symbols from Lahore, are Yasmin Rashid from NA-130 with symbol ‘laptop’, Salman Akram Raja on NA-128 with ‘racquet’, Latif Khosa has been given English letter ‘K’ for NA-122 and Mian Azhar given ‘wicket’ for NA-129.
PTI senior leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s children, Mehr Bano Qureshi and Zain Hussain Qureshi, have been allotted ‘chimta’ (tongs) for NA-151 and shoe for NA-150 constituencies of Multan, respectively.
Umair Niazi will fight the election with the symbol ‘door’ on Mianwali’s NA-90 seat. Shoaib Shaheen is given a ‘shoe’ to contest elections in Islamabad’s NA-46 constituency.
‘Piyala’ (bowl) will represent Shandana Gulzar in NA-30 constituency of Peshawar and ‘kettle’ will represent Barrister Gohar Ali Khan in the NA-10 constituency of Buner.
Jamshed Dasti, who is contesting on two National Assembly seats from Muzaffargarh, has been allotted ‘harmonium’ for NA-175 seat and ‘aeroplane’ for NA-176.
Renowned singer Abrarul Haq, who is the PTI candidate from NA-117, has been allotted the symbol of ‘guitar’ and he is contesting against the joint candidate of Istehkam Pakistan Party (IPP) and PMLN Abdul Aleem Khan. Yasir Gilani, a Provincial Assembly candidate from PP-145, has been allotted the symbol of ‘duck’.
From NA-118, Alya Hamza of PTI has been allotted the symbol of ‘dice’ whereas Muhammad Mandi, the provincial assembly candidate of PTI has been given the symbol of ‘Lamb’. Nadim Atlaf Sherwani, the PTI candidate contesting against Maryam Nawaz from NA-119, has been allotted the symbol of ‘cricket stumps’. Wasim Qadir of PTI from NA-121, contesting against PMLN’s Sheikh Rohail Asghar and PPP’s Iftikhar Shahid, is also contesting on the same election symbol. Bajash Niazi, a PTI Provincial Assembly candidate, has been allotted the symbol of ‘Dove’.