ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday allotted electoral symbols to the candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), contesting elections as independent candidates after the Supreme Court annulled the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order on party’s intra-party elections.
In a late-night decision, the Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the Dec 22 decision of the ECP depriving the PTI of its iconic poll symbol — ‘bat’.
A three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali — announced the verdict after a day-long hearing.
The decision was announced minutes before the expiry of the fifth extended deadline by the election watchdog for the intending candidates to submit party tickets.
Following the verdict, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar said that all party candidates would contest elections independently.
Here’s the list of symbols allotted to PTI candidates:
Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who has been deprived of his post of PTI chairman after Supreme Court judgement, was allotted “teapot” as election symbol while Shaukat Yousafzai’s symbol has been “racket”.
PTI’s Shahryar Afridi will contest the election with a “bottle” symbol, Shandana Gulzar has been given the symbol of “bowl”.
PTI senior leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s children Mehr Bano Qureshi and Zain Hussain Qureshi have been allotted electoral symbols 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 has been 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 NA-10 constituency of Buner.
Jamshed Dasti, who is contesting on two National Assembly seats from Muzaffargardh, has been allotted ‘harmonium’ for NA-175 seat and ‘aeroplane’ for NA-176.
According to the returning officer, in NA-177, PTI’s Maqsood Khan Jatoi has been allotted the symbol of a Hookah, and in NA-178, PTI’s Daud Khan Jatoi has been given the symbol of a keychain.
PTI’s Shairam Tarkai from PA-20 and Rangzeb Khan from PK-49 have been given the symbol of a dove.
In PK-50, peacock has been allotted to PTI’s Aqibullah Khan, and in PK-51, Abdul Karim has been given the symbol of a kettle.
On the other hand, PMLN has been allotted the ‘lion’ symbol, PPPP ‘arrow’, JI ‘scale’, PTI-Nazaryati ‘batsman’, IPP ‘eagle’, MQM-P ‘kite’ and TLP allotted ‘crane’.
