ISLAMABAD, July 19: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday allocated 'bicycle' as an election symbol to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League for the August 18 by-elections to be held in Attock and Tharparkar.
The decision came at a meeting of the ECP held here with acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar in the chair. The meeting adjourned the hearing of a case initiated on a letter of the PML (Functional) at the request of the parties. The next date of hearing was not fixed.
Sultan Mahmood, the acting president of the PML-F who appeared before the commission, had written the letter to the ECP with a request to consider the Pagara-led group as a separate entity instead of a merged party within the PML.
According to sources, the party believes that the nomination of some of the PML office-bearers annoyed the chief of the Functional group, Pir Pagara, who had decided to maintain the independent status of the group.
Different factions of the PML - PML-Zia, PML-Jinnah, PML- Junejo, and PML-Functional - as well as the Sindh Democratic Alliance had announced their merger with the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) on May 12 and the unified group constituted the PML.
About the election symbol, the meeting considered the certificate the PML had submitted on Saturday in which it had argued that the amended constitution of the party had authorized PML president Chaudhry Shujat Hussain to nominate certain members as office-bearers of the party.
The Leader of the House in the Senate, Wasim Sajjad, and PML Secretary-General Senator Mushahid Hussain appeared before the ECP on Monday. While allotting the symbol, the ECP assured the contesting parties that all steps would be taken to ensure that the by- elections were held in an impartial manner.
It said that efforts would be made to minimize the time to be spent on counting of ballots on the polling stations and communication of results to returning officers.
The meeting was attended by Justice Nasim Sikandar, a judge of the Lahore High Court; Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari, a judge of the Balochistan High Court; and Justice Qazi Ehsanullah Qureshi, a judge of the Peshawar High Court.