LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: On Wednesday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed the petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, seeking to change his allotted election symbol from a ‘donkey cart’ to a ‘peacock’ for the upcoming February 8 elections.
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the former Chief Minister of Punjab and a prominent PTI leader, had contested the Election Commission’s decision to assign him the ‘donkey cart’ symbol.
Despite the recent permission granted by the Supreme Court for Pervaiz Elahi to participate in the elections, the Lahore High Court bench, led by Justice Shahid Bilal Hasan, ruled against his plea for a symbol change.
The court upheld the Election Commission’s earlier decision, which had allotted the ‘donkey cart’ symbol to Pervaiz Elahi.
This decision comes after Pervaiz Elahi’s nomination papers were initially rejected by the returning officer, a decision later overturned by the high court and the election appellate tribunal.
During the court proceedings, Pervaiz Elahi’s legal representation argued that the decision to assign the ‘donkey cart’ symbol was driven by malice, alleging that the returning officer had deliberately rejected the application for the ‘peacock’ symbol. Despite these claims, the court maintained the validity of the Election Commission’s choice.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
