Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed the petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for the allotment of the election symbol peacock. Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan of the LHC gave a safe verdict on Pervaiz Elehi’s request.
During the hearing, the lawyer of the Election Commission informed the court that Form 33 was issued on January 13, in which the names of Pervaiz Elahi and Qaisra Elahi were not mentioned.
On January 18, Form 33 was re-issued, and Qaisra Elahi’s name was included. Moreover, Pervaiz Elahi’s name was included in Form 33 after his nomination papers were approved on January 27. The election commission lawyer told the court that Qaisra Elahi got a tricycle while Pervaiz Elahi got a donkey vehicle as an election symbol.
The order of the Election Commission was that if the election symbols were changed, it would not be possible to hold the election on February 8. In this election, there are three times as many candidates as in the previous election.
As per Form 33 of January 27, the ballot papers have been printed. Pervaiz Elahi’s lawyer said that the Election Commission has created a very good story. The Chief Election Commissioner uses the shoulder of the Supreme Court (SC). We applied to the Returning Officer (RO) on January 26th, but he was not ready to accept the application. We applied to the district RO.
According to the Election Commission Act, the candidate should get the election symbol of his choice. If they have sent the ballot paper for printing, we pay for the new printing.
Lawyer Pervaiz Elahi added that the district RO has no legal power to give election symbols; if the RO is not available, then the application will be made to the district RO.The Election Commission was not allotting election symbols to Qaisra Elahi either.
In the judgment, the court said that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi will contest the election on the symbol of the donkey vehicle.
