Merger between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Sunni Ittehad Council 'serious and best decision': PTI Chairman

Highlighting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) merger, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that his party took a "serious and best decision in circumstances prevailing at the time when PTI lost its electoral symbol and was looking for options to secure its reserved seats, reported The News International.

Highlighting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) merger, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that his party took a "serious and best decision" in circumstances prevailing at the time when PTI lost its electoral symbol and was looking for options to secure its reserved seats, reported The News International. This comes after some conflicting voices were raised from inside parties over the PTI and SIC merger.

"Not only reserved seats, but we also wanted to get protection from our independent candidates, as merging with a political party would also stop defections," Gohar said while speaking to the media outside Adiala Jail after the hearing of the EUR190 million scandal case against PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi. He reiterated that the PTI-SIC merger was the best decision taken after much deliberation, according to The News International.

PTI Chairman Gohar further expressed hopes for the apex court to provide justice to Imran Khan's party, which 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.

Gohar added that they would also seek an interpretation of Article 51 of the Constitution from the top court to know if a party could get more reserved seats than the proportion of winning seats or not. Gohar announced that the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) ruling to deny reserved seats to PTI would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

Earlier on Thursday, the PTI faced a major blow as the PHC dismissed the PTI-backed SIC's petition challenging the ECP's ruling that denied reserved seats to the party. The court further stated that the "petitions were unanimously rejected," reported The News International.

Moreover, he also rejected any associations with the ongoing protests overseas, clarifying that his party did not have any part in the recent demonstrations outside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) headquarters. "If overseas Pakistanis are making up something, then it would be their own decision," Barrister Gohar said.

It is noteworthy that several PTI workers from overseas staged protests outside the IMF and WB headquarters in Washington against alleged irregularities in the 2024 general elections in Pakistan, The News International reported. The protests were also criticised by the Pakistani government at a time when the country was seeking another bailout package from the IMF to address its economic crisis.

Responding to a question, PTI chairman Gohar said that the party did not ask the IMF to stop disbursing financial aid to Pakistan; however, it admitted that the party urged the global lender's recall of its commitments for free and fair elections and transparent allocations of its funds. (ANI)

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