PHC directs RO to allot another symbol to PTI leader

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday accepted the writ petition of former provincial minister Kamran Bangash and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to allot him another electoral symbol.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar and Shakeel Ahmad heard the petition. Syed Sikandar Hayat Shah, advocate, appeared for the petitioner.

Justice Ijaz Anwar remarked why the returning officers didn’t apply their mind while allotting electoral symbols to independent candidates, adding that this would confuse the voters. Justice Shakeel Ahmad remarked that literacy rate was low in Pakistan so the returning officers should have awarded visibly different electoral symbols to the candidates to prevent confusion.

Syed Sikandar Shah told the court that his client Kamran Bangash was a former provincial minister belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and was contesting the election as an independent candidate for PK-82 after the party was deprived of its election symbol bat.

He said the returning officer had allotted the election symbol “violin” to his client while another candidate also named Kamran was given “guitar” as election symbol. He said that both the symbols looked similar and would confuse the voters.

However, Mohsin Kamran representing the ECP said that the two symbols were dissimilar and could be differentiated. The returning officer concerned told the court that the ECP had directed them not to change the election symbol at this stage. The court told the returning officer that they should have allotted visibly different symbols to the independent candidates and directed him to allot another election symbol to the petitioner.