The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will make a final decision today about joining a party to secure reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
This was announced by the party leader, Barrister Gohar Khan, while talking to the media. He said that PTI cannot receive reserved seats without joining a party, so the party will make a final decision on which party its independent candidates will join.
Independent candidates backed by PTI have secured the maximum number of National Assembly seats, while in Pakhtunkhwa, the independent candidates have secured a two-thirds majority. In Punjab, the independent candidates are in the second position after PML-N. However, in Sindh and Balochistan, the PTI-backed independent candidates have not achieved any significant success.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rule, only a party that has contested elections with its party electoral symbol will receive the reserved seats both in the center and provinces. PTI was not allotted an electoral symbol by the ECP as the party had failed to conduct intra-party elections, and as a result, all PTI candidates contested the February 8 elections as independent candidates. Now, these candidates have to join another political party to have reserved seats.
Earlier, PTI hinted that its candidates would join Majlis-e-Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen (MWM). Though the MWM has given a green signal to PTI, the party has not made any official announcement in this regard. MWM was one of the parties mentioned in connection with a ‘Plan-C’ by the PTI.
A candidate belonging to the MWM was declared the victor in Kurram’s NA-37 on February 8. Hamid Khan was declared the winner after receiving 58,650 votes as per Form-47 issued by the Election Commission. Sajid Hussain Turi of the Pakistan People’s Party stood second with 54,384 votes.
After the February 8 polls, PTI also contacted Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in this regard; however, the latter has yet to give a green signal in this regard. Recently, PTI leaders also met arch-rival Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Based on this, there is speculation that PTI-backed candidates can join JUI-F.
Earlier, Pakhtun Nationalist leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai had also offered PTI to join its party to receive reserved seats; however, PTI did not avail of this offer. Some political analysts are of the view that PTI-backed candidates can join separate parties in the Center and provinces; however, the cloud will be clear today after the formal announcement by PTI.
