Election 2024: 150 parties were given electoral symbols for the polls on February 8

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Meanwhile, in Islamabad, symbols were assigned to roughly 119 contenders.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has assigned electoral symbols to over 150 political parties that are competing for seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the 2019 general elections.

But after the Supreme Court’s ‘bat’ emblem ruling last Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the nation’s former ruling party, was absent from the list of parties posted on the ECP website.

The list states that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) has been assigned the symbol “tiger,” the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP) “arrow,” the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) “sword,” the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) “eagle,” the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) “book,” the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI) “scale,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) “turban,” the Balochistan National Party (BNP) “axe,” the Awami National Party (ANP) “camel,” and the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) “cow.”

On Saturday of last week, the electoral authority issued an order instructing the returning officers to ensure that no candidate from a different party gets given a poll symbol.

“Therefore, in exercise of powers, conferred upon the commission under Section 4 of the Elections Act, 2017, the commission hereby directs that no symbol of any political party be allowed to any such candidate who is member of another political party and seeks allocation of symbol of other political party,” the order reads, issued by the commission’s five-member bench, which is chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

There have already been 177 emblems for independent candidates notified by the ECP.

Election emblems were distributed to candidates by returning officers in the Islamabad Capital Territory, where 119 candidates were given symbols for three NA constituencies.

According to data provided by the returning officials, 44 candidates would compete in NA-46, while up to 29 candidates from this seat will run as independents. In an attempt to get into the assembly, candidates from sixteen different political parties would also run in this constituency. This seat is also home to a transgender candidate running under the electoral symbol “green chilli.”

For NA-47, a total of 37 people would be running, including 12 candidates from various political parties and 25 independents. Chaudhry Ilyas Meherban, the independent candidate in NA-47, was awarded the symbol “battery.” Similarly, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar would use the emblem of a “clock” to contest.

There will be 38 candidates running from NA-48 in total, with 27 independents and 11 party candidates making an attempt to win this constituency.

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