• “There is no ambiguity in this Section of the Elections Act 2017.”
• Haider says independent candidates take advantage of “prejudices”.
• PPP highlights prevailing trend of electoral symbol denial.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has voiced concerns over the denial of the party’s ‘arrow’ electoral symbol to the ticket holders in various constituencies of Punjab, The News reported on Tuesday.

Taj Haider, in-charge of PPP’s election monitoring cell, wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja to bring to notice the prevailing trend in Punjab of denial of party election symbol to the PPP Parliamentarians ticket-holders and placing them in the category of independent candidates.

“Our serious concerns over such denials may kindly be noted,” he said in the letter.

Haider said that according to Section 66 of the Elections Act 2017, “a declaration before the Returning Officer about his affiliation with a particular political party, if any, along with a certificate from the political party, showing that he is that party’s candidate from that constituency” was the only and the final requirement for “seeking allotment of a prescribed symbol”.

“There is no ambiguity in this Section of the Elections Act 2017, and it should be followed in letter and spirit,” he added. The election cell in-charge said, “You would agree sir, that the whole system of our constitutional democracy is built around the basic structure of political parties.

“Accepted that citizens have the option of contesting elections as independent candidates but, we have repeatedly experienced that the presence of independents in an elected house does open an unfortunate window for horse trading and exerting pressures on the elected independents,” he said in the letter to the CEC.

Haider said independent candidates are often elected by taking advantage of “parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and provincial prejudices” fault lines among our citizens.

He said under Article 33 of the Constitution, the state must discourage such and similar prejudices. “Instead citizens should be encouraged to vote on the performance, policies and manifestos of political parties,” he added.

The senator said that pushing valid candidates, who are affiliated to a party, and also submitted required documents before returning officers at the time of seeking a prescribed symbol, outside the fold of that party and into the category of independents runs contrary to the provisions of Article 33 of Constitution and the necessary and sufficient requirements of Section 66 of the Election Act 2017.

He requested to the CEC that he should issue general instructions to all ROs and DROs to allot prescribed symbols under Section 66 of the Elections Act 2017, to all candidates who have at the time of seeking a prescribed symbol submitted a certificate from their party regarding their affiliation to that party.