Pak Elections 2024: Imran Khan's party loses cricket bat symbol- Understanding its significance

Pakistan's former Prime Minister's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) once made use of the electoral symbol of a cricket bat, but this cannot be the case in the elections of 2024. Yes, the party loses the cricket bat symbol for the Pakistan elections in 2024. 
Now, the question is, what issues is the party facing, and how significant are the electoral symbols for the election? 

Let's understand every detail, bit by bit. 

Understanding electoral symbol

The election commission hands out distinct pictorial identifiers to the candidates and political parties to contest elections. These symbols are unique to every party and represent the political party. It is through these symbols that the voters identify a party. One symbol is assigned to each political party, and these symbols are presented on the ballot papers. During elections, the voters put a stamp on their preferred symbol to vote for their preferred party, on the ballot paper.

Imran Khan has been a former national cricket team captain and was much appreciated and celebrated in his cricket career in Pakistan. Khan's political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been conferred with the symbol of a cricket bat, which, however, has now been stripped off. 

Now, it is important to note that while the ballot paper also contains the names of the parties besides their respective election symbols on the ballot paper, a large section of the voters in Pakistan cannot read those names. This is because about 40 percent of the total population of Pakistan is illiterate. As per the economic survey of 2022-23, only 50 percent of the rural population of Pakistan is literate. Moreover, a majority of the constituencies of Pakistan are situated in rural areas. This makes the presence of pictorial symbols even more important so that the voters can recognize the parties through their symbols. These symbols, therefore, are crucial for identification. 

A single ballot paper in the Pakistan elections holds a very long list of parties and candidates for the voters to choose from, over thousands of candidates, signified by the party name and election symbols. 

For the elections of 2024, over 150 symbols have been conferred to the contesting political parties. Moreover, another 174 symbols have been assigned to the independent candidates.

The cricket bat symbol was removed- What is the reason?

The PTI has denied the use of the cricket bat symbol by the election commission for the 2024 elections. 

The symbol has been taken away from the PTI because PTI had not held intra-party elections. This is a prerequisite for parties to be a part of the 2024 elections. It is for this technical reason that the party was stripped of the symbol.

Disappointed by the rule, the party challenged it in the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled against the party on January 13. On this, the party says that the military is trying to keep the party out of the elections. However, the military denies this allegation.