Gohar, Ayub not joining SIC for PTI’s internal polls

Three other party-backed independent NA members from K-P also unable to merge with council

PESHAWAR:

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Omar Ayub, and Ali Amin Gandapur are not among the five successful candidates nominated by the PTI for the National Assembly seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for the reserved seats – the first two because of their participation in the party’s internal polls.

A total of 37 PTI-backed independent candidates for the NA seats emerged victorious from K-P and decided to join the SIC for acquiring their quota of reserved seats.

However, only 31 of them merged with the SIC.

Gohar and Ayub are not joining the SIC because of the upcoming PTI’s intra-party elections.

As for Gandapur, he has given up his place in the NA and stuck to his provincial legislature seat after being nominated for the post of the K-P chief minister by PTI founder Imran Khan.

Two more successful PTI-backed MNAs, Iqbal Afridi and Shahid Khattak, were unable to submit their joining form to the SIC in time because of the delay in issuance of their gazette notifications of their victory.

On Wednesday, the SIC approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), seeking the allocation of reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures after the PTI sealed its alliance with the council.

The ECP was requested to allot the seats on the basis of the inclusion of the PTI-backed candidates in the party.
A request drafted by SIC Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza was submitted to the polls supervisory body through a PTI representative.

However, the ECP has yet to decide about whether to entertain the request or not.

If the request is accepted, the PTI-allied bloc will be allocated 22 reserved seats for women in the NA, 20 in K-P, and 27 in Punjab, besides three for minorities.

However, the SIC had neither applied for any reserved seat to the ECP – a requirement under the law – nor had it filed a priority list of candidates before the elections.