ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has approved addition of 27 symbols to and omission of ‘cat’ from the existing list of election symbols, taking the total number of approved symbols to 197.

Despite increase in the number of approved election symbols, political parties enlisted with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) outnumber the same. The number of political parties registered with the ECP now stands at 217.

The newly approved election symbols are: baby cot, balloons, bangles, cannon, crocodile, dish antenna, fort, hud hud (bird), hukkah, human eye, human hand, jeep, kangaroo, key, keychain, key with lock, kite, knife, Khyber Pass, pressure cooker, school bag, stapler, sun, swing, top, toothbrush and tortoise.

Under Section 107 of the Representation of the People Act 1976, the ECP, with the approval of president, may make rules for carrying out the purposes of the act.

President’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the ECP had decided that some new symbols should be added into the list of existing symbols and that the symbol ‘cat’ be deleted from the list because of its resemblance with the symbol ‘tiger’.

He confirmed that the president, on the advice of the prime minister, has approved issuance of a notification by the ECP to amend the Representation of the People (Conduct of Election) Rules, 1977, thereby adding some more symbols in the existing list and also to omit one symbol that created confusion due to its resemblance.

According to the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002, the ECP will notify a date for political parties to apply for election symbols soon after the schedule of elections is announced.