ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party will not boycott the upcoming national elections, scheduled for Feb. 8, despite an apex court ruling denying it a poll symbol, a senior PTI member said on Monday. 

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on Saturday the PTI was ineligible to retain cricket bat as its poll symbol due to its failure to conduct intraparty elections as mandated by the country’s election laws. Consequently, PTI nominees will now be participating in the national elections as independent candidates, with each one of them using a different electoral symbol. 

The ruling came as a setback for the party and its supporters across the country and raised doubts that it may opt out of the election race, but Gohar Khan, a senior PTI member, dispelled the notion and announced the PTI would contest the upcoming national elections. 

“God willing, within three days, we will apprise you of the candidates from our website and official accounts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, along with pictures, that these are our candidates and these are their symbols,” Gohar told reporters outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, after his meeting with the ex-premier. 

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had revoked bat as the PTI’s election symbol on December 22, citing non-compliance with intraparty election rules. While the PTI initially secured a verdict in its favor by the Peshawar High Court (PHC), the election oversight body challenged it in the top court, which eventually decided in favor of the ECP. 

Election symbols are crucial in Pakistan where the adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, according to World Bank data. 

The bat symbol is reflective of ex-PM Khan’s past as a successful cricketer, who led Pakistan to their only 50-over World Cup win in 1992, propelling him to an unrivaled position among the country’s cricket greats. 

Separately, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), another major political faction in the country, has expressed concerns over the denial of party symbol, arrow, to its candidates in the Punjab province. 

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has accused three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif’s party, which holds considerable sway over the administration in Punjab, of “targeting” PPP candidates in the province. 

“The PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) does not want to do politics, nor do they want to compete politically,” he said. “They just want to keep the political opponents out of the pitch and play alone.” 

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The PTI, PPP and a few other parties have lately called on the caretaker administration and election authorities to provide a “level playing field” to all political parties contesting the elections. 

Amid the allegations, Sharif’s PML-N party kicked off campaigning on Monday in the eastern city of Okara, where thousands of supporters thronged for speeches by senior leaders. The three-time former PM, who did not appear at Monday’s rally, has largely been absent from the public eye since returning from self-imposed exile in Britain late last year. 

Since then, Sharif, who was last ousted in 2017, has seen the myriad corruption cases plaguing him dissolve in the courts. His opponents see the recent judgments granting relief to the former premier as favors given to the PML-N.