The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denied on Friday the iconic ‘bat’ symbol to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the general elections scheduled to be held on February 8, 2024, Aaj News reported.
A five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, had reserved the judgement on Tuesday on the matter linked to the allocation of the bat as the PTI’s electoral symbol.
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The development comes hours after a PTI lawyer, Shoaib Shaheen said the electoral watchdog had assured PTI that it would address the party’s concerns regarding “a lack of a level playing field” in the run up to the general elections.
In its verdict announced today, the ECP also termed the PTI’s intra-party elections unlawful saying the party had not complied with its directions and “failed to hold intra-party election in accordance with PTI prevailing Constitution, 2019, and Election Act, 2017, and Election Rules, 2017”.
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It may be noted that the ECP announced the decision on a petition of Akbar S Babar, a former PTI member, who claimed that PTI did not stage the intra-party elections in line with the rules.
Criticising over the ECP’s decision, PTI’s official account on X wrote, “The bat is not dead. Long live the bat. We will inshAllah win on 8th February!”.
PTI announced that it will challenge the ECP’s decision in court to retain its bat symbol.
“We will not boycott the elections […] we have a plan B,” Barrister Gohar, who was elected as the PTI’s chairman in the intra-party elections, said while speaking to Geo News.
Another PTI laywer, Naeem Haider Panjutha wrote in a post on X that the party will challenge the ECP verdict in court.