The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday evening stripped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of its iconic ‘bat’ symbol — a sign that epitomises its founder Imran Khan’s former life of cricket.

Some of his supporters cried injustice and claimed that it was the first time a political party had lost its election symbol.

Although the crackdown against PTI is severe, it is not the first political party in the county to lose its electoral symbol.

The electoral history of the country shows that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s election symbol ‘Sword’ was removed from the Election Commission’s list after the disputed 1977 elections under former military ruler General Zia ul Haq.

And yet Benazir Bhutto, his daughter contested the elections in 1988 and emerged victorious in the ballot exercise with a different symbol of arrow.

In 1988, the PPP emerged as the largest party by winning 94 out of 207 seats in the National Assembly.

The establishment-backed Islami Jamhoor Ittehad (IJI), of which his main opponent Nawaz Sharif was an integral part, finished second with 56 seats amid a voter turnout of just 43 per cent.

The PPP was able to form a government by entering into an alliance with other parties such as Altaf Hussain’s MQM.

Pakistan People’s Party also won the 1993 and 2008 elections with the same arrow symbol. In 1993, the PPP won 86 seats and Benazir was sworn in as the Prime Minister of the country for the second time.

After the assassination of Benazir in 2008, the party won 125 seats while contesting with the same arrow and formed a coalition government with PMLN.

Yousuf Raza Gilani became the Prime Minister while Asif Zardari became the President.

PPP now retains the both symbols of speed and arrow.

There are two PPPs registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan. One with the electoral symbol of a sword and the other with an arrow.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari-led PPP has the electoral symbol of the sword while Asif Zardari-led PPP Parliamentarian has an arrow as its symbol. It is the PPP-P that goes to polls and not the PPP.

Ziaul Haq removed two other symbols from the list during his rule: scale and plough.

In the 1970s, a plough was the symbol of the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), a nine-party conglomerate against the PPP.

Back then, the scale belonged to Jamaat e Islami which lost it.

Ironically, in 2013 PTI and JI fought over the symbol of ‘scale’ but it was tilted in favour of JI.