KARACHI – A day after losing the iconic bat symbol, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday kicked off its election campaign with a rally at Karachi’s Sea View beach led by its central leader Sher Afzal Khan Marwat.
Founded by the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, the PTI lost the legal battle on Saturday when the Supreme Court announced its verdict in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) favour, depriving the former ruling party of its electoral symbol just days ahead of the general elections.
With the apex court verdict, came the expiry of the deadline for allotment of electoral symbols to the political parties. The ECP has now allotted different symbols to the PTI candidates, who will now contest as independent contenders in the February 8 general elections.
In Karachi, Marwat led the party’s first election rally with a large number of people in attendance.
The gathering was announced by PTI leader Raja Azhar, who said that the party would begin its campaign from Sea View, which is a famous picnic point for Karachi’s citizens.
However, he complained that the police had placed barricades on the ways leading to the venue.
Later, the traffic police issued a clarification that the main track along the Sea View beach was temporarily blocked due to the political rally, but was restored soon after. They said that there was no barricade on the roads towards the spot anymore.
