IPP again applies for ‘eagle’ as election symbol

ISLAMABAD: Within days of delisting of All Pakistan Muslim League as a political party by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) has again applied for allotment of ‘Eagle’ as its election symbol.

“We had decided in our central executive committee meeting to apply for ‘Eagle’ as our party’s election symbol. It is indeed the best and most impressive symbol in the available list,” confirmed IPP spokesman Fayyazul Hasan Chohan, when approached for comment on the development.

He explained that since former president late General Pervez Musharraf’s party did not exist and its symbol ‘Eagle’ was available, the IPP was keen to be granted the same now.

A few days back, the Election Commission notified IPP’s intra-party election in order, which is a prerequisite for qualifying to obtain an election symbol.

Previously, the newly-formed political party’s request for the same symbol was rejected by a four-member bench of the Election Commission, headed by Sindh Member Nisar Ahmad Durrani. It was suggested ‘sparrow’ as a symbol to contest the upcoming general election, once its office-bearers were elected and notified. Some two months back, this legal requirement had not been fulfilled.

Likewise, the Election Commission had made it conditional for the APML to retain its symbol only after it holds the intra-party elections. However, the party failed to do so and the Election Commission last week issued a detailed order and concluded, “… in view of the above discussion and scanning of record, the Commission holds and decides that there are no elected office-bearers of APML; therefore, the party is virtually non-existent. Due to non-existence of the elected office-bearers in accordance with the party constitution and the provisions of the Act of 2017, the party has been unable to provide valid consolidated statements of accounts of last four (4) years which is the requirement of the Article 17(3) of the Constitution read with Section 210 of the Act of 2017. The APML has failed to fulfill the requirement of Section 209 and 210 of the Act of, 2017 which is one of the pre-requisites for enlistment of a political party in terms of Section 202. In exercise of powers conferred upon it under Article 218(3) read with Section 202 (5) of the Act ibid, APML as a political party is hereby delisted and the applications for allocation of symbol submitted by unauthorised and self-styled office-bearers are rejected. Resultantly the symbol ‘eagle’ becomes available for allocation in accordance with law”.