Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party received a boost weeks before general elections when a court reinstated – for the second time – their electoral symbol, the cricket bat.
A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) in the country’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s decision to strip the party off its symbol last month was “illegal”. Khan is Pakistan’s most celebrated cricketer ever and had led them to their only World Cup win in 1992.
The order came less than a month before Pakistan votes in a general election scheduled to take place on February 8.
The ECP had taken away the PTI’s electoral symbol on December 22, saying that the party had violated the constitution and election laws during its internal organisational elections.
The PTI appealed the case in the PHC, which issued a provisional order until January 9, overturning the polling body’s verdict.
Credit: aljazeera.com
