Sensing situation, ECP issued directive to provincial election commissioners, DROs, ROs to refrain from changing election symbol       The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) sign board in Islamabad. — AFP/File

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Tuesday that the printing of ballot papers for elections 2024 has started but feared bulk of pleas seeking change of symbol can lead to a delay in polling in related constituencies.

In a statement issued here, the ECP said that election symbols are being changed from various forums after the election symbol is allotted. After the allotment of election symbols, the ECP has already ordered the printing of ballot papers to the three printing corporations and the printing work has started.

“If the process of changing the election symbols continues in the same way, then on one hand, there is a fear of delaying the election because the ballot papers will have to be reprinted for which time is already limited and on the other hand, the special paper available for the ballot papers will also be lost,” it explained.

In this regard, the ECP is meeting on how to deal with this situation and how to implement the instructions issued by the commission repeatedly that the election symbols should not be changed now. The statement said it is also being considered that if this trend of changing the election symbols does not stop, then there will be no option but to postpone the elections in such constituencies.The statement said that there has been an increase of more than 33 percent in the number of contesting candidates for the upcoming general elections, as a total of 11,700 candidates fought the poll bout in 2018, whereas their number has jumped to 18,059 this time.

The Election Commission shared this in a statement issued here Tuesday evening and said in the 2018 elections, 800 tons of paper was used for printing ballot papers, while this time 2,070 tons of paper is estimated to be used in the 2024 elections.In 2018, 220 million ballot papers were printed, while this time 260 million ballot papers are being printed in view of the significant increase in the number of voters, following the up-dation of the electoral rolls in the backdrop of the delimitation of constituencies.

Meanwhile, a senior official, privy to the ECP meeting, which was presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, said that the general elections will be held on time i.e. on February 8.The meeting, also attended by the ECP members and other officials, was given a briefing on the printing of ballot papers and writ petitions being filed for change of election symbols. Sensing the situation, the ECP issued a directive to the provincial election commissioners, DROs and ROs to refrain from changing the election symbol.

The ECP source said that some actions were taken and remedies made in the light of some complaints, including those received from PPP’s Election Cell in relation to the party’s symbol. One of their complaints was that a returning officer had allotted the ‘kettle’ instead of the ‘arrow’ as the electoral symbol to Fayyaz Bhatti, the PPP candidate for Lahore’s provincial constituency PP-163. He pointed out that as per Section 236, the jurisdiction of courts is barred.

The official said that candidates had enough time with regard to the election symbols and then under the law, the ROs are mandated to allot symbols on their own to the independent candidates.

Moreover, he said that the list of elections symbols for independent candidates had been there since long and no political party or individual ever filed any objection to any of those over 150 symbols. The official said that the election schedule was issued after taking care of every aspect of the election-related matter and the printing of ballot papers in millions had been started firstly for the three smaller provinces and now for Punjab. “After exhaustion of a procedure, the stage of printing of ballot papers comes and now once it has started and is expected to be completed within a week, how can changes at this stage be made to the ballot paper,” he wondered.

He said the meeting was told that changes on a limited scale may still be possible in next two days, but after that if the courts issued orders accordingly, then there was a possibility of delaying polls in those constituencies.

The ECP was informed that after the ballot papers were printed, these were scrutinised prior to transportation of the same to the constituencies and it was a time-taking exercise too. Over two hundred pleas were filed in Punjab, some in Peshawar and then in Swat as well, seeking replacement of symbol.

Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed the writ petitions of independent candidates belonging to the PTI against the allotment of electoral symbols for the upcoming general election. Independent candidates belonging to the PTI, whose petitions were dismissed included former minister Shahryar Afridi, former lawmaker Asif Khan, Aftab Alam and Shafiullah.

A two-member bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Ijaz Khan Sabi heard the petitions.

The lawyer representing Shahryar Afridi told the court that his client was contesting the election for NA-35 Kohat and he had been allotted the electoral symbol of “bottle”. He said that under the law, the ECP was bound to allot a symbol to a former lawmaker of his choice, but the election watchdog did not do so.

The ECP lawyer told the bench that the candidate in question had not submitted any application to this effect. He maintained that now everything was final and the ballot papers were getting published.

Similarly, the lawyer for independent candidate Asif Khan running for NA-32 told the court that his client had been allotted the symbol of “wheelbarrow” while another candidate with similar name had also been given the same symbol, which would lead to confusion. After hearing the arguments, the court dismissed the petitions of former minister Shahryar Afridi, former lawmaker Asif Khan, Aftab Alam and Shafiullah. Also, the PHC accepted the plea of former provincial minister Taimur Salem Jhagra and directed the ECP to allot him the symbol of his choice. He is in the run for PK-79 and was allotted the electoral symbol of “roundtable”. He had requested for the allotment of “traffic signal”.