PTI to contest polls with or without ‘Bat’

Key party official says that PTI has backup plan ready in case election symbol is taken away

ISLAMABAD:

At a time when the fate of its ‘bat’ is hanging in balance, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has vowed that it would contest polls with or without the cricket symbol and wouldn’t give a walkover to its opponents in the upcoming general elections slated to be held on February 8, 2024.

Despite PTI adhering to the legal requirements set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and cautioning against any attempt to strip them of the bat symbol, a key official said that the party also has a plan B if the bat symbol is snatched from it.

“PTI will contest polls with or without bat symbol,” a key PTI leader said while clarifying that the first choice would always be to have the bat as the election symbol. In case PTI is deprived of its symbol, the leader shared the party can go for getting a new symbol, admitting that the process can consume a lot of time if not expedited.

To the question of what PTI would do if the bat is taken and no other symbol is allocated to the party before polls, the official replied that “PTI will contest polls even if it has to award tickets to independent candidates”. He, however, hoped that such a situation would not arrive as PTI has already complied with ECP’s direction.

Despite fulfilling the legal formalities, the party feels that it might not get back its election symbol and, perhaps, that is why the PTI spokesperson had claimed on Saturday that the “undemocratic and non-political circles,” which wanted to expel the PTI from politics, were now depriving the party of its election symbol of cricket bat to achieve their “nefarious” purpose.

Read also: Uncertainty clouds PTI intra-party polls

In a recent meeting where some other PTI officials were present, the leader said that the election symbol was crucial but PTI voters, mostly young and educated, would vote in the name of founding PTI chairman and ex-premier Imran Khan for any candidate nominated or supported by him and the party.

Sharing that PTI would not give a walkover to other political parties, the core committee member said that PTI would prefer to sit on opposition benches if it doesn’t get a majority, saying the alliances made previously didn’t end well.

To a question why PTI doesn’t sit with other political parties, the leader recalled that PTI’s last experience with the political parties wasn’t pleasant as, he said, they were only interested in NRO – a deal – when both sides sat in parliament after the Supreme Court had intervened in polls’ matter.

Currently, PTI’s election symbol is in no man’s land as ECP had directed PTI on November 23 to hold intra-party elections by December 13 to retain “bat” as its election symbol, warning that any deviation would render it ineligible to obtain any other election symbol for the upcoming general elections.

Read: PTI challenges ECP decision on party polls

Initially, PTI announced to challenge the decision but then complied with the order and not only held intra-party polls but elected a new party chairman while sidelining the founding PTI chairman Imran Khan, who is currently in jail and entangled in multiple cases.

Nevertheless, the clouds of uncertainty are still surrounding PTI’s intra-party polls as ECP has recently issued the party notice on pleas seeking to have the polls declared null and void. PTI, which ruled the country while leading an alliance from 2018 to 2022, had landed in hot waters after May 9 its workers and supporters allegedly attacked the country’s civil and military installations.

Subsequently, PTI faced a massive crackdown, it fell like a house of cards after its party leaders started abandoning it amid arrests and re-arrests spree. Several party leaders and workers are still in jail and might face military trials as well.