Pakistan’s electoral symbols

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party has lost its cricket bat symbol ahead of general elections on February 8. Symbols are crucial to help voters with low literacy levels identify candidates


Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: Election Commission strips PTI of cricket bat symbol on technical point

Apr 1996: PTI formed by cricket legend Imran Khan (left)

Aug 2023: Khan jailed for three years for corruption and barred from holding public office

Jan 31, 2024: Khan jailed for 14 years for selling state gifts for profit, one day after he is given 10-year sentence for leaking state secrets


Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (N): Key political player since its formation in 1993, represented on ballot paper by tiger symbol

PML-(N) led by former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (right). Jan 8, 2024: Corruption conviction and lifetime ban from politics quashed. Sharif launches campaign to return as Prime Minister
                                                               

Pakistan People’s Party: Contests elections with arrow symbol

PPP co-leaders Asif Ali Zardari (far left), and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari (left), will stand for position of president and prime minister respectively
       

Jamiat UIema e Islam: Smaller party based in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan, uses book symbol

Balochistan Awami Party: BAP uses axe symbol. Founder member Anwaar- ul-Haq Kakar has been caretaker Prime Minister since Aug 2023
      

Sources: Business Recorder, Dawn, OCCRP, Reuters 
Pictures: Getty Images 
© GRAPHIC NEWS