ISLAMABAD, July 9: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday directed the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) to submit a certificate about its intra-party elections under the signatures of its president Chaudhry Shujat Hussain for the allotment of an election symbol.

A decision to this affect was made during a meeting of the Election Commission which was presided over by the acting CEC Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, a Supreme Court judge.

The meeting was called to consider the application of the PML, a newly-formed political party, for the allocation of 'bicycle' as its election symbol in the light of the Political Parties Order, 2002, the Political Parties Rules, 2002, and the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002.

The PML is required to provide the required document by July 18, 2004. The request for the allocation of 'bicycle' as the party symbol was made in view of the forthcoming elections for two National Assembly seats, Attock and Tharparkar, in which prime minister-in-waiting Shaukat Aziz is running as the PML candidate.

The symbol of bicycle has always been a favourite choice of different PML factions under different party heads in the past and even the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), which has now become the PML after the merger of a number of parties, had fought the October 2002 general elections with this symbol.

According to the Election Commission, Article 12 of the Political Parties Order, 2002, and Article 5 of the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002, require from the political parties to provide records regarding elections within their ranks - a requirement seldom fulfilled by mainstream political parties, barring the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The commission concluded its meeting with an understanding that after the receipt of the requisite certificate from the PML, the EC would process the request of the party for the allocation of election symbol in its next meeting to be held on July 19, 2004. An officer conceded that the party had not provided any document regarding intra-party elections.