ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allotted separate electoral symbols to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates, including bowl, shoe, harmonium, chimta (tongs), hen, bottle, pomegranate and kettle.
The symbols which were allotted to PTI candidates late Sunday night after the Supreme Court of Pakistan stripped the PTI of bat symbol, as now the PTI candidates will elections as independent candidates.
Some of the main PTI leaders who will contest elections on different symbols from Lahore are Yasmin Rashid from NA-130 with the symbol “laptop”; Salman Akram Raja on NA-128 with “racquet”; Latif Khosa has been given the English letter “K” for NA-122 and Mian Azhar given “wicket” for NA-129.
PTI loses bat symbol in major blow ahead of elections
PTI senior leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s children Mehr Bano Qureshi and Zain Hussain Qureshi have been allotted electoral symbols chimta (pair of tongs) for NA-151 and shoe for NA-150 constituencies of Multan, respectively.
Umair Niazi will contest the elections 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.
Some of the PTI candidates have been allotted hen, bottle, pomegranate, etc., as electoral symbols. However, PTI candidates are optimistic that their sole symbol is Khan and the electoral symbols allotted to them will not make any difference.
On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamat-e-Islami, PTI-Nazaryati, Istihkam-e-Pakistan (IPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) remained lucky as they were allotted their reserved electoral symbol.
January 13 was the last date for allotment of electoral symbols to candidates for the February 8 general elections.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024