After some conflicting voices were raised from inside party over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Sunni Ittehad Council merger, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said Saturday that his party took “serious and best decision in circumstances prevailing at the time when PTI lost its electoral symbol — bat — symbol and was looking for options to secure its reserved seats.
“Not only reserved seats, we also wanted to get protection for our independent candidates as merging with a political party would also stop defections,” Gohar said while speaking to media outside Adiala Jail post-hearing of £190m scandal case against PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.
Gohar pinned hopes on the Supreme Court to provide justice to the Imran-led party that had been rejected for being eligible to get reserved seats for women and minorities. He detailed that the PTI was eyeing a total of 80 seats, including 67 reserved seats for women, and 11 for minorities.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Barrister Ali Zafar has said Sher Afzal Marwat had rightly said that the decision to make alliance with the Sunni Ittehad Council was wrong.
Speaking in a private TV programme, Ali Zafar said earlier the decision was made to forge alliance with the Shirani group. “We wanted reserved seats, but when the final negotiations were held, we could not make alliance with the Shirani group. The next option was MWM. They had one member in parliament. At the last moment the decision was changed and the alliance was made with the Sunni Ittehad Council,” Zafar explained.
Zafar further said the SIC did not contest the election nor did they give a list of reserved seats. Marwat was right when he said the decision of making alliance with the SIC was a mistake, he said.
