Pakistan court restores ex-PM Khan’s party polls symbol

A Pakistan court yesterday ruled that ex-prime minister Imran Khan's party can contest elections using its cricket bat logo, lawyers said, winning the jailed opposition leader a rare reprieve before polls due in February.

In a nation where the adult literacy rate is just 58 percent, election symbols are vital campaign tools for differentiating candidates on ballot papers.

But last week, the election commission stripped former cricket star Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of the right to use its icon.

"The election commission's ruling against PTI, in which its election symbol, the cricket bat, was unjustly revoked through an illegal order, has been suspended," said PTI lawyer Syed Ali Zafar.

"It has been further directed that our symbol be reinstated," Zafar told reporters outside a High Court in the city of Peshawar, where PTI lodged an appeal.

Pakistan's election commission revoked PTI's right to use the symbol in polls set for February 8 over the party's failure to hold internal elections in accordance with its constitution.

But PTI said the decision was the latest legal hurdle erected in a campaign to prevent its 71-year-old figurehead from contesting re-election.