LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed the returning officer (RO) of NA-64 and PP-32 of Gujrat to decide an application of Qaisera Elahi, the wife of PTI President Parvez Elahi, seeking election symbol of peacock.

Ms Elahi through a counsel pleaded that the court had directed the RO to accept her nomination papers from the constituencies. However, she said, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not yet allocated her the electoral symbol.

The petitioner said the RO refused to entertain an application to allot her peacock as election symbol for both national and provincial constituencies, which are in the same area. She pointed out that no other candidate in the constituencies had been allocated the electoral symbol of peacock.

She asked the court to order the ECP to allow her application and allocate the peacock as the electoral symbol.

Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad disposed of the petition and directed the RO to decide the application of the petitioner strictly in accordance with law.

The judge also directed the RO of NA-128, Lahore, to decide an application of candidate Irfan Ali Shah seeking an electoral symbol of gun instead of radio.

The judge dismissed similar petitions of Hammad Ali from PP-151 and Samiullah from PP-101 for being filed beyond the time limit.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2024