{"id":71459,"date":"2024-03-15T10:18:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pti-to-merge-with-sunni-ittehad-council-if-ecp-returns-electoral-symbol-asad-qaiser\/"},"modified":"2024-03-15T10:18:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:18:00","slug":"pti-to-merge-with-sunni-ittehad-council-if-ecp-returns-electoral-symbol-asad-qaiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pti-to-merge-with-sunni-ittehad-council-if-ecp-returns-electoral-symbol-asad-qaiser\/","title":{"rendered":"PTI to \u2018merge\u2019 with Sunni Ittehad Council if ECP returns electoral symbol: Asad Qaiser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Friday said his party would \u201cmerge\u201d with the Sunni Ittehad Council if the Election Commission of Pakistan accepted its recent intra-party polls and returned its electoral symbol of \u2018bat\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In January, after back-and-forth verdicts by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1800094\">ECP<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1799679\">Peshawar High Court<\/a> (PHC), the PTI\u2019s electoral symbol ultimately was<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805488\">revoked<\/a> by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>On March 3, the PTI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1818814\/barrister-gohar-elected-pti-chairman-unopposed-for-second-time-after-fresh-intra-party-polls\">conducted<\/a> its intra-party elections for the third time in the past two years, following its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1794477\">Dec 2 elections<\/a> that were earlier declared invalid.<\/p>\n<p>A day ago, the Peshawar High Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1821427\/phc-rejects-sunni-ittehad-councils-plea-challenging-ecps-decision-to-deny-reserved-seats\">upheld<\/a> the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s decision to reject the party allocation of reserved women and minority seats.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1821572\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The dismissal of its plea challenging the ECP verdict has left the SIC \u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1816169\">new home<\/a> of PTI-backed winning candidates \u2014 with no reserved seats. The PTI has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1821572\/pti-to-move-sc-after-being-denied-reserved-seats\">said<\/a> it would take the matter to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on <em>DawnNewsTV<\/em> show \u2018Doosra Rukh\u2019 that will be aired at 5pm today, when asked whether PTI-backed candidates who joined the SIC would remain in it, Qaiser said, \u201cYes, we will remain but we will also merge with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that if the party got back its electoral symbol after the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1818814\/barrister-gohar-elected-pti-chairman-unopposed-for-second-time-after-fresh-intra-party-polls\">intra-party polls<\/a>, \u201cboth [parties] would merge\u201d and \u201cremain as PTI\u201d, rather than the current scenario of its candidates being a part of the SIC.<\/p>\n<p>On the matter of whether it would be allowed under the laws, he said his party was consulting legal experts.<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether it was the right decision for PTI-backed candidates to join the SIC, Qaiser replied that the party held \u201cmany consultations\u201d amongst it and that the options were few.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about the PHC verdict, the ex-NA speaker said the party\u2019s legal team \u201cshould challenge it in the Supreme Court\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to the coalition government, he said, \u201cA fake government cannot understand this country\u2019s economic situation. [\u2026] They do not have the capacity, capability or even authority to make decisions. They will run away themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked if other parties in the current coalition government, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, would stick with the PML-N-PPP coalition, Qaiser replied: \u201cGod-willing, there would be public pressure to the extent that the mandate thieves will leave this [government].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA new government will be formed, which will rightly comprise of those given the public mandate,\u201d he said, adding that he saw \u201ca change coming in four to five months\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if he thought elections would be held anew, the PTI MNA expressed hope of \u201cgetting justice\u201d from the cases currently under way in the election appellate tribunals and other courts. \u201cAnd we will get our seats back [from the courts],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On the possibility of bringing a vote of no-confidence against the current government, Qaiser said, \u201cDefinitely, when we will have the [required] numbers, there will be our representation. God-willing, Imran Khan will be the prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Friday said his party would \u201cmerge\u201d with the Sunni Ittehad Council if the Election Commission of Pakistan accepted its recent intra-party polls and returned its electoral symbol of \u2018bat\u2019. In January, after back-and-forth verdicts by the ECP and the Peshawar High Court (PHC), the PTI\u2019s electoral symbol ultimately wasrevoked by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/151453559d5e100.png?r=145406","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}