The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which has seen a significant setback to its chances of winning the 2024 election, is still determined to make it to parliament and has unveiled its “Plan C” to guarantee its participation in the legislature after the results of the polls.
The party, which was founded by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, lost its recognizable “bat” emblem when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) successfully appealed the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to set aside the electoral body’s decision regarding the “illegal” intra-party polls.
The loss was made worse by Tehreek-e-Insaf Nazriati, a party splinter faction, leaving the previous ruling party “high and dry” by rescinding their agreement to share a symbol, which further harmed the PTI’s attempts to establish an alliance with them.
Despite the fact that each PTI candidate will run independently on February 8th using different symbols (e.g., kettle, brinjal, tongs, etc.), the party’s leadership has expressed fear that they won’t receive reserved seats because those are allotted to political parties.
Any party hoping to gain control of the National Assembly—of which there are 336 seats—would suffer a severe blow from this, as 70 of them are set aside for women and non-Muslims.
14 of the 65 seats in the Balochistan provincial legislature are reserved; 30 of the 145 seats in the assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are reserved; 38 of the 168 seats in Sindh are reserved; and 74 of the 371 seats in Punjab are reserved.
Senior PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan also expressed his concern to journalists in Islamabad about “horse-trading,” saying that if his party’s candidates were successful, other political parties would steal them in order to bolster their own positions.
According to some legal experts, this would be lawful because, as independent candidates, they will not be subject to party policy and cannot be disqualified under Article 63-A, which deals with a party member’s desertion.
Hamid Mir, PTI leader Gohar claimed after the February 8 elections are done, “we will not get reserved seats”.
But there’s a catch: if our candidates win, they can join us, and together, we can change the party.
Thus, following the elections, we will have three days. We can claim the reserved seats once they join us and inform [necessary authorities] that they have joined this party.
“This is our Plan C—to bring back the people [under one umbrella],” he remarked in response to the anchorperson’s criticism that he shouldn’t have disclosed this plan on live air.
Barrister Muhammad Ahmed Pansota said that although the political party’s symbol has been removed ahead of the next elections, the party itself remains intact.
Thus, the party may always seek for the reserved seats based on their symbol once the general and intra-party elections are held. It will be an interesting situation because they can also obtain the reserved seats if they join a political party.
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