Pakistan court restores ex-PM Imran Khan’s cricket bat election symbol
Al Jazeera
The order, less than a month before the election, could be challenged in Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
Islamabad, Pakistan: 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.
Senator Ali Zafar, a senior leader of the PTI and member of party’s legal team in the case, said the Peshawar court’s order was a testament to the party’s “pursuit for justice and truth”.
“We, the PTI, are upholding the values of justice and this verdict gives credence to our stance. Nobody can stop us from winning the polls,” he told Al Jazeera.
