ISLAMABAD – Candidates from Imran Khan’s party will contest February’s national vote in Pakistan as independents, using different election symbols, after the country’s top court barred them from their traditional cricket bat image. 

The former prime minister’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said it developed an online portal to inform supporters about the list of approved candidates participating in the Feb 8 elections. The candidates will reportedly contest the elections under an array of vote symbols ranging from a roller coaster to a goat. 

“We aren’t giving up, not quitting,” Mr Raoof Hasan, Khan’s spokesman, said on the phone. “We need a credible mechanism as there are many who claim they are our candidates.”

The move comes after the Supreme Court upheld an Election Commission decision to strip PTI of its cricket-bat symbol – a nod to Khan’s former superstar status in that sport – effectively barring the party from contesting in the polls.

Election symbols are important in Pakistan, where poor literacy means a large number of voters can’t read the names of candidates on the ballot paper. 

Khan’s party had said that losing the bat as the symbol was a major setback for the group in the general election and that its voters may struggle to recognise and select the party when casting ballots. 

Khan remains the most popular politician in Pakistan. He faces more than 170 cases and is in jail after a court convicted him in a graft case. His party says the cases are politically motivated attempt to keep him off the ballot. BLOOMBERG