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PESHAWAR: Advocate Gohar Ali Khan, Omar Ayub and Ali Amin Gandapur are not among the five successful candidates nominated by the PTI for National Assembly seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for reserved seats – the first two because of their involvement in internal party polls.
A total of 37 PTI-backed independent candidates for NA seats emerged victorious from K-P and decided to join the SIC to get their quota of reserved seats.
However, only 31 of them merged with SIC.
Gohar and Ayub are not joining the SIC because of the upcoming PTI internal elections.
As for Gandapur, he gave up his NA seat and remained in his provincial legislative seat after being nominated for the post of K-P Chief Minister by PTI founder Imran Khan.
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Two other successful PTI-backed MNAs, Iqbal Afridi and Shahid Khattak, were unable to submit their SIC joining form on time due to delay in issuing their victory notices in the gazette.
On Wednesday, the SIC approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allotment of reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures after the PTI sealed its alliance with the council.
The ECP was asked to allocate seats based on the inclusion of PTI-backed candidates in the party.
The request proposed by SIC chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza was submitted to the poll watchdog through a PTI representative.
However, the ECP is yet to decide whether to grant the request or not.
If accepted, the PTI-allied bloc will be allotted 22 reserved seats for women in NA, 20 in K-P and 27 in Punjab, besides three for minorities.
However, the SIC did not apply for any reserved seat in the ECP – a legal requirement – nor did it file a preferred list of candidates before the elections.
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