ECP decision on PTI 'bat' symbol could raise questions on poll credibility: Raza Rabbani

• JI leader calls ECP verdict "victimisation, disappointing". 
• Azam Nazeer Tarar says ECP had full authority to decide.
• Sharjeel Memon says PTI had faced quite lenient treatment.

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani spoke against Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to strip Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of its 'bat' symbol, saying that this verdict could affect the credibility of upcoming polls. 

“It would have been better if PTI was allotted bat,” said the former Senate chairman while talking to The News on Friday, while calling for a level-playing field for all the political parties including its rival PTI.

A day earlier, the electoral body decided against letting PTI use its ‘bat’ electoral symbol, a sign that depicts its founder Imran Khan’s former life of cricket, for the upcoming February 8 general elections. 

A five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, announced the verdict on former PTI member Akbar S Babar's petition against the "fraudulent" intra-party elections and declared them unlawful.

The party also seems to be running out of time as the extended deadline for submitting the nomination papers expires on Sunday and the party only has one day (Saturday) to move courts against the ECP’s decision.

The PTI has complained repeatedly that it is being targeted and not being given a level-playing field. 

Moreover, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Secretary General Ameerul Azeem termed the ECP decision on PTI's electoral symbol "victimisation and disappointing". 

Azeem said that the party which was not even allowed to hold a corner meeting was taken to task for not holding the intra-party polls. 

Meanwhile, PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon stated that such things were not new for them as the Bilawal Bhutto-led party had faced similar situations many a times in the past.

He said the PPP was deprived of its election symbol ‘arrow’ and it also had to face a ban and come up with a new name i.e. PPP-Parliamentarians.

Sharjeel said the PTI had faced quite lenient treatment, which was visible in the foreign funding case when a party, which received funding from India and Israel and did not disclose its accounts, was spared.

He said the PTI used institutions for its own objectives, adding that Khan was brought through unfair means to power and that people’s mandate was hijacked through horse trading. 

The PPP leader stated that he was not supporting a ban on any political party but the PTI itself destabilised the country while it was in power.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Azam Nazeer Tarar said the PTI was not the only party whose election symbol had been withdrawn, adding that the ECP had full authority to decide. 

He said that when rules were made, they should be followed. In the past, election symbols of PML-N and PPP were also withdrawn.