Pakistan Court Allows Imran Khan’s Party Election Symbol

(CTN News) – The Pakistani court gives former prime minister Imran Khan‘s party the green light to use the cricket bat logo in upcoming elections, which is good news for the imprisoned opposition leader.

Peshawar, a city in Pakistan’s northwest, is home to the High Court, which on Tuesday overturned a decision from last week prohibiting Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from using its election emblem.

According to PTI counsel Syed Ali Zafar, the election commission’s decision to suspend the PTI’s cricket bat symbol, which was unlawfully taken away, has been put on hold.

“Our emblem must be restored per additional directive,” he declared.

In a country where only 58% of adults can read and write, election symbols play an essential role in helping voters distinguish between candidates.

The electoral commission justified its action by stating that the party had violated its constitution by failing to conduct constitutionally mandated internal elections.

The PTI, however, interpreted this as yet another attempt to dissuade the former cricket star Imran Khan from running in the upcoming February 8 election.

Even though he has the backing of most Pakistanis, Imran Khan was ousted as prime minister last year due to a disagreement with the country’s influential military brass.

There are several charges against him while he is in prison, including the felony of leaking confidential state documents, which carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years in prison and the possibility of the death penalty.

Several prominent PTI members have been either imprisoned or “forced” to quit the party, supposedly as a result of military pressure, since Imran Khan’s incarceration earlier this year.

The PTI announced on Friday that it had nominated Khan to run in the general election.

However, his disqualification from office due to a corruption conviction earlier this year makes the nomination questionable.