ECP restores PML-N election symbol of lion

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday restored the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s (PML-N) election symbol of lion, ARY News reported.

A four-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, allotted the PML-N the election symbol of lion after it was informed that intra-party election to elect a new party chief was being conducted.

Earlier on Sept 26, the ECP had declared the PML-N ineligible to contest election on the symbol of lion after it failed to elect a new party president within 45 days after the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers.

After Sharif’s disqualification, the ECP had also issued a notice to the ruling party, seeking appointment of new party president.

According to ECP’s notice that cites Political Parties Order 2002, “a disqualified lawmaker cannot hold any office in a political party.”  

However, the ruling party rushed through the Senate and National Assembly Election Bill 2017, a clause of which allows an individual disqualified to be member of the parliament to hold office of a political party.

The Central Working Committee (CWC) of the PML-N in its meeting at the Punjab House yesterday had unanimously approved a resolution moved by Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in his capacity as the party’s acting secretary general to make necessary changes to the party constitution to make Sharif party chief again.