NEW DELHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Barrister Gohar Khan on Monday said party-backed independents, who emerged victorious in nearly 100 seats in the controversy-marred general polls, will join the
Sunni Ittehad Council
as a party.
“Our candidates have submitted their affidavits with us and with their consent today we are announcing that PTI-supported independents are joining the Sunni Ittehad Council,” he said.
“You know that there are 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and there are 227 reserved seats in the entire country. These seats are only provided to political parties. Therefore, to protect our reserved seats and provide the cover to our members, we have reached a formal agreement under which all our candidates have joined the party and we will present this documentation before the ECP,” he said.
Gohar said a request will also be filed in the ECP regarding the allocation of reserved seats as per the party strength and law.
Sunni Ittehad Council leader Hafiz Hamid
Raza
said his party’s alliance with the PTI dates back nearly eight years.
“The way PTI’s ‘bat’ was taken just a few days before elections ... I want to clarify that this is not a single-handed decision. It includes the approval of PTI leadership and
Imran Khan
,” he said.
“Our support of Imran Khan and the PTI is unconditional,” Raza told PTI-backed independents.
PTI leader
Omer Ayub Khan
said the move to join SIC will increase PTI’s strength in the National Assembly.
“This is because the quota of reserved seats lies with political parties. Coming together with the Sunni Ittehad Council would increase the PTI’s strength in the National Assembly,” he said.
Ayub added that after joining the Sunni Ittehad Council, the PTI would form governments in Punjab and
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
.
“Our first job will be to set free Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Parvez Elahi and all our senior leadership,” he vowed, while thanking the Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen for the support it has provided to the Imran Khan-led party.
Post-poll alliance
The post-poll alliance by the PML-N and the PPP could mean that PTI will not be able to form the next federal government, prompting Khan's party to allege that the two rival parties were trying to steal the people's mandate with the help of the powerful establishment.
Khan's beleaguered party received a major boost on Saturday when a senior government official in charge of the election process in the garrison city of Rawalpindi alleged that rigging took place and dragged the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice into it.
Buoyed by the allegations of vote rigging, the PTI on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the manipulation of the results of the elections.
Independent candidates - a majority backed by former prime minister Imran Khan's PTI party won 92 National Assembly seats in the election.
The PML-N won 75 seats while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has also agreed to support them with their 17 seats.
To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly.
(With inputs from agencies)
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