Daily Times

The Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Tuesday that all political parties were allotted symbols they requested for.

According to ECP announcement, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was allotted the symbol of lion, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf bat, Jamaat-e-Islami scale, PPP-P arrow, Awami National Party lantern, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan kite. After the announcement, reports started circulating in the media that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would contest the upcoming election on the symbol of sword, the founding symbol that led Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to landslide victories in Punjab and Sindh provinces in the 1970 general election.

P PP, registered with the ECP in Bilawal’s name, was allotted sword and PPP-P, whose official president is Asif Ali Zardari, was allotted arrow on Tuesday.

However, while speaking to Daily Times, senior PPP leader Dr Nafisa Shah clarified that the party would continue its tradition of contesting elections from the platform of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P).

The symbol of sword had been removed from among the options during General Ziaul Haq’s martial law to deny the allotment to PPP. That is when the party opted for arrow as its electoral symbol.

“It is clear that PPP-P, not PPP, is our electoral party. Since arrow is granted to PPP-P, therefore it will remain our electoral symbol as well,” she said.

“Pakistan People’s Party applied for sword because it is our traditional electoral symbol. The option was available and PPP applied for it. But we will go with arrow as our electoral symbol,” she said further. Since 1988, it will be the eighth consecutive general elections in which PPP will contest under the symbol of arrow.

Published in Daily Times, May 30^th 2018.