PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that changing or refusing the allocation of an electoral symbol to a party will not have any major impact on its popularity.
“It has been done in the past when the PPP had to get Arrow as an electoral symbol instead of Sword and people cast their votes in favour of the party,” he told Asma Shiraz on Faisla Aap Ka.
Kaira was of the view that refusing to allot PTI its electoral symbol would not have any negative impact on the party. “I think it will increase the sympathy vote of PTI.”
On the political atmosphere in the country, he said that people were losing trust in the power of their votes due to managed elections in the past.
“If such thing is to be repeated again, it will hurt Pakistan instead of benefitting it,” the PPP leader added.
PTI’s Senator Ali Zafar said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) before the media announced its decision that it will allot the party its electoral symbol.
“However, the written verdict was not issued after which rumors began to circulate that the ECP may change its decision. So, we submitted three applications with the ECP to give us a decision in writing and now the electoral body will announce its final decision tomorrow [Thursday],” he added.
Senator Zafar vowed to challenge the ECP’s order in the courts if it falls short of announcing “bat” as the party’s electoral symbol.
On free and fair elections, he said that PTI was not given a level playing field and was not allowed to run election campaigns.
“We have to approach courts. The party recently got a verdict from the Peshawar High Court but still, we are not allowed to run an electoral campaign,” the PTI leader claimed.
PML-N’s Khurram Dastgir Khan said that his party is in support of PTI getting its electoral symbol and believes that every party should be given a fair chance to contest elections.
“Despite the May 9 riots, if leaders of the PTI want to participate in democratic practices, they should be allowed and given a fair chance,” he added.
Responding to a question over PTI’s concerns about fair elections, Dastgir said that PTI had been involved in rigging elections in the past.
“There are several standards to free and fair elections and not only election campaigns. We need polls in which RTS [Results Transmission System] does not stop working overnight; where a plurality is not made minority similar to what was done to PML-N in Punjab,” he added.
