PPP’s Senator Taj Haider wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja expressing concern over the “prevailing trend” in Punjab where party candidates were being denied the ‘arrow’ symbol. This comes after PPP candidates Muhammad Fayyaz Bhatti and Mujahid Islam were not allotted the ‘arrow’ symbol and placed in the independents category for PP-163 (Lahore) and PP-119 (Toba Tek Singh I) respectively. Haider requested CEC Raja to direct the returning officers (ROs) to issue the ‘arrow’ symbol to both candidates as per Section 66 of the Election Act, 2017.
The letter emphasized that the constitutional democracy was built around the structure of political parties and pushing candidates affiliated with a party into the category of independents was contrary to the provisions of Article 33 of the Constitution. Haider also requested the issuance of general instructions to all ROs and district returning officers (DROs) to allot prescribed symbols to all candidates who have submitted a certificate from their party regarding their affiliation.
PPP leader Sherry Rehman also expressed concern over the denial of the party’s electoral symbol to candidates and demanded the ECP issue the correct one to ticket holders. She noted that Bhatti was given a ‘kettle’ symbol while Islam was allotted a ‘wheelchair’ instead of the ‘arrow’. Rehman hoped that these irregularities would be corrected as soon as possible.