In a recent setback for jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party, Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected their attempt to maintain the traditional electoral symbol of a cricket bat.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), facing tensions with influential army generals, contends with a military-supported crackdown intensifying ahead of the February 8 general election. The PTI accuses the military of trying to sideline them in the election, a claim that the army denies.
In the South Asian nation of 241 million people, where many constituencies are situated in rural areas with low literacy, the electoral symbol on ballot papers holds significance for voters to recognise a party's candidates.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa made the ruling in a live late-night broadcast of the proceedings on the top court's website. Without the cricket bat symbol, PTI candidates will now have to run using individual symbols, potentially causing confusion among their supporters.
"This, by far, is the worst decision impacting million of voters," the party said in a statement, with its chairman Barrister Gohar Khan announcing that its candidates will contest the election as independents.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had stripped the PTI of the symbol on the technical grounds that it had not held intra-party elections, a prerequisite for any political party to take part in the national election.