PTI decides to withdraw its members from Sunni Ittehad Council

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser revealed that his party has decided to withdraw its members from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).

In an interview with a private news channel, the former Speaker National Assembly said, "We consulted extensively on the issue of joining the SIC before making this decision. At that time, our options were limited."

So far, PTI has been unable to achieve its primary goal of forming an alliance with SIC, which was to secure reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies after losing the bat symbol due to a Supreme Court verdict before the February 8 polls.

“Though we do not have any hope from the Election Commission of Pakistan to deliver justice, Asad Qaiser stated, “if we regain the bat symbol from the Election Commission, then both parties will merge.”

He maintained that PTI’s legal team should challenge the decision of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) in the Supreme Court, which denied the SIC petition challenging the ECP's ruling that denied reserved seats to the party.

The PTI seniour vice-president predicted the ouster of the newly-elected  government within the next 5-6 months, saying, “if PTI garners enough votes in the assembly, we would launch a no-confidence motion against the government and Imran Khan will become the prime minister.”

Newly-elected independents backed by PTI joined forces with the SIC on February 19, hoping to secure reserved seats in government assemblies.

However, on March 4, ECP rejected the SIC’s request for reserved seats. The following day, those seats were given to other parties.

SIC then challenged ECP’s decision in PHC on March 6. The court then prevented certain elected members from being sworn in.

On Thursday, PHC ruled against the SIC’s request for reserved seats.