"Imran Khan's party deprived of its 'bat' symbol because it is a terrorist party"

LAHORE: Senior PML-N leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz on Monday said that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was deprived of its cricket bat election symbol because it is a “terrorist party”.

The Supreme Court on Saturday last upheld the December 22 decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) depriving the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, founded by the cricketer-turned-politician, of its symbol for failing to hold transparent intra-party elections.

Addressing the maiden election rally of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party in Okara city, some 125 km from Lahore, Maryam fully supported Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa's decision to deprive the PTI of its iconic election symbol.

“The Supreme Court has rightly taken away ‘bat’ from you (Imran Khan) as a terrorist party cannot be allocated an election symbol,” she said.

The PML-N had earlier said that the PTI would not be allowed to contest the elections for its "sin to attack military installations".

PTI supporters are accused of attacking military installations across the country on May 9, 2023, following the arrest of its supremo, Khan, in a corruption case. Since then, over 10,000 PTI workers and leaders were arrested.

The party was dismembered into two and PTI Parliamentarian and Isthekam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) were carved out of it and Khan was booked in nearly 200 different cases. Khan, 71, is currently imprisoned at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi and he is also not allowed to contest the upcoming February 8 polls by the top election body.

The PTI has criticised the Supreme Court's decision, saying that it has deprived millions of people of their right to vote for the party of their choice.

Meanwhile, launching its much-delayed election campaign from Punjab province on Monday, the PML-N said it kick-started its poll rally after ensuring the ouster of the PTI from the election ring.

Addressing Khan, Maryam in the rally said: “You say your electoral symbol was ‘bat'...in fact it was a danda (baton) that you had used against the state and the military. What is happening to the PTI is a result of its own actions," the 50-year-old leader said.

She urged people to vote for her father Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, if they want prosperity in the country.

On Khan’s recent remarks that Sharif is playing the (polls) match with the umpires (military establishment, ECP and the CJP), Maryam said: “Nawaz Sharif’s real umpire is the public and it will bring him back to power for the fourth time.” The PML-N has already nominated 74-year-old Sharif as its prime ministerial candidate.

On Saturday last, the three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Isa, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Justice Musarrat Hilali knocked the PTI out of the next months’ general elections on ‘techincal grounds’ that it had not held intra-party polls according to the laid down rules.

The PTI has indirectly accused CJP Isa of playing at the hands of the military establishment to oust the PTI to benefit their man – Sharif – in the February 8 polls.