PESHAWAR: Several independent candidates belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have moved the Peshawar High Court against allotment of election symbols to them.

Lawyer Syed Sikandar Shah filed petitions on behalf of former federal minister Shehryar Afridi, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister Kamran Khan Bangash, former MPA Asif Khan, and other PTI leaders Aftab Alam and Shafiullah.

They challenged the decision of the returning officers to issue different election symbols to them, and made the Election Commission of Pakistan, returning officers and district returning officers as respondents in the petition.

In the petition, former federal minister Shehryar Afridi, who is contesting elections on NA-35 Kohat, petitioned the court against the allocation of the election symbol ‘bottle’.

He said that he served as a former federal minister but the party’s former members were given priority in the award of election symbols.

They’re contesting elections as independents

The petition read, “Mr Afridi has learned about the allotment of ‘bottle’ as his election symbol from social media. Candidates are asked for their opinion before the allotment of the election symbol and he was never asked about it. He tried to contact returning officers several times but received no reply.”

In his petition, former MPA Asif Khan said that he was contesting elections on the election symbol ‘wheel-borrow’ in NA-32 Peshawar constituency.

He said that PK-82 constituency of KP assembly also fell in NA-32 for which the same symbol was awarded to another candidate for PK-82, Peshawar XI constituency, Asif.

Mr Asif’s petition said that both candidates belonged to the same constituency and were in the same electoral race, so the assigned election symbol would create great confusion among voters because two candidates for the provincial and National Assembly constituencies had the same name and election symbol.

It added that a similar candidate name and symbol would badly affect the petitioner as the voters would get confused due to the same name and election symbols.

The petition said there was every possibility that petitioner’s voters would end up polling ballots to another candidate for PK-82 that was against the fundamental, constitutional and election right of the petitioner.

It added that the allocation of the same symbols undermined the entire campaign strategy and confused voters.

“The petitioner had spent significant resources and efforts in building a strong brand image associated with the specific symbol,” it read.

The petition said that the award of similar election symbols to two candidates of the same electoral area raised questions about the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.

In his petition, PTI leader Kamran Bangash said that the returning officer had allotted him the election symbol ‘violin’, while another independent candidate, Kamran, got ‘guitar’ as his election symbol.

The petition said that the award of musical instruments to two candidates with the same name on the same ballot paper would create problems for voters.

Independent candidate Shafiullah, who belongs to the PTI and is a resident of Kohat district, petitioned the high court against the allotment of the ‘cauliflower’ election symbol to him. Another candidate from the area, Aftab Alam, has challenged the award of the election symbol ‘aubergine’ to him.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024