PTI to take ‘oath of loyalty’ from MPs for Senate polls

Party will also soon announce date and time for staging protest outside Adiala Jail

ISLAMABAD:

The PTI has decided to take an ‘oath of loyalty’ from the party lawmakers before the Senate elections.
The party’s members in the National Assembly as well as in the provincial legislatures of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh – now merged with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) -- would take the oath of loyalty outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, where the PTI founding chairman was incarcerated.

The party leadership has started contacting its MPAs in Punjab and K-P to inform them about the oath as well as the planned protest outside Adiala Jail.

A date and time is expected to be announced soon for the Adiala Jail protest comprising the party’s lawmakers.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has also issued instructions for making the arrangements for the Adiala Jail protest.

The oath of loyalty will be taken through stamp papers.

Besides, the Insaf Students Federation (ISF) will also be summoned to Adiala Jail.

The protest will be organised for the release of Imran, withdrawal of the “fake” cases against him, and the alleged rigging in the general elections.

A day earlier, an appellate tribunal set aside the orders of the returning officer and accepted the nomination papers of

PTI-backed candidates Murad Saeed, Khurram Zeeshan and Azam Swati allowing them to contest the Senate polls on April 2.

It also rejected appeals against PPP’s Rubina Khalid, Fida Mohammad Khan, and Qaizar Khan; JUI-F’s Dilawar Khan and Shazia, and PTI-backed Azhar Mashwani, confirming the acceptance of their papers for the upper house of parliament polls.

In December last year, the ECP’s decision to deny the PTI its electoral symbol on technical grounds triggered a crisis— a decision also upheld by the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, the PTI-backed candidates navigated the electoral battle as independents without a symbol in the February 8 general polls.

The NA is set to convene on April 1 to make preparations for the highly anticipated election of 48 Senate seats.

During an informal exchange with journalists at a hearing in Adiala Jail, Imran claimed that the current government would last only five or six months.

Political analysts maintained that the former premier’s confidence in predicting the current government's demise within six months was rooted in solid grounds and a realistic assessment, grounded on his belief that the government lacked both moral and constitutional credibility.