The Sunni Ittehad Council, which most of the PTI-backed candidates joined, had sought allocation of reserved seats in the national and three provincial assemblies. However, the ECP said the SIC did not submit the priority list for the seats and were ineligible.
According to a notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday, the presidential election is set to take place on March 9. Zardari, who previously served as president from 2008-13, was nominated by the coalition government led by the PML-N and PPP.
Omar Ayub Khan, PTI's candidate for the next PM, has been elected unopposed as the Imran-founded party’s central general secretary. Ali Zafar was previously named the candidate for the party chairman, but he refused, leaving only Gohar as the sole candidate for the post.
Maryam Nawaz created history on Monday after becoming the first woman Chief Minister of Pakistan's Punjab province. However, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf maintained that Maryam won through rigged votes and denounced her as a 'fake CM'.
Khan, 71, has been in jail since August in connection with other cases and has previously denied the allegations. He had already been convicted in two cases on corruption charges, that disqualified him from taking part in politics for 10 years.
The Pakistani newspaper said that while Ali Zafar refused to accept the chairmanship, the deadline to submit nomination papers ended at 3 pm on Sunday, and only Gohar Khan submitted his candidature for the top post.
Gohar on Thursday announced that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s next chairman nominee is Barrister Ali Zafar and that internal elections of the 71-year-old former-cricketer-turned-politician’s party are scheduled to take place on March 3.
Last week, former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha claimed 13 candidates from Rawalpindi were forcefully declared winners before resigning. Now he says the claims in that press conference were made at the behest of a senior PTI leader to boost their narrative.
Despite an Army-backed crackdown, Imran Khan's PTI-backed candidates won 93 seats in the elections marred by allegations of rigging and violence. Astonishingly, the PML-N was expected to win outrightly with the support of the military but lagged far behind the independents.
This comes as almost all PTI-backed independent candidates joined the right-wing Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Wednesday. PTI's previous intra-party elections were declared "unconstitutional" by the electoral watchdog and Pakistan's Supreme Court.
PTI leaders Gohar Khan and Omar Ayub have deliberately not filed their affidavits to join the Sunni Ittehad Council as they plan to contest the party's internal elections. The Imran Khan-led party has rejected the coalition announcement as 'PDM 2.0' and vowed to form the government.
The PML-N and PPP joined hands to form Pakistan's federal government in 2008 and 2022. The leaders of these two parties - Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto- were locked in intense rivalries for power in the 1990s that ended with Nawaz's ouster by Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced the alliance, with PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif slated to become Prime Minister and PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari set to reclaim the presidency.
As Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto's parties seemed on course to form a coalition government, Imran Khan's PTI made its own efforts by allying with MWM and SIC to form the governments. The party has alleged that PML-N and PPP are trying to steal the people's mandate with the Army's help.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf claimed that it won at least 180 seats, of which 85 were taken away, and said February 8 will be remembered as the "biggest voter fraud" in Pakistan's history. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Supreme Court will hear a petition on Monday seeking to declare the polls null and void.
Notably, the polls did not return a clear majority for anyone, but independent candidates backed by Imran Khan won 92 out of 264 seats making them the largest group. Khan ruled out alliances with the three largest parties, which means his candidate currently lacks the numbers to form a government.
PTI has approached other parties to join Saturday's protest against alleged rigging in last week's elections. Meanwhile, the party rejected to hold talks with PPP after reports emerged that Imran Khan softened his stance and was ready to hold talks with the Bilawal Bhutto-led party.
PTI leader Asad Qaiser said Imran nominated Omar Ayub as the Prime Minister candidate and will reach out to other parties to support his candidature. Omar served in Imran Khan's Cabinet as a federal minister and has been a member of Nawaz Sharif's party and the ruling party under Pervez Musharraf.
This comes after Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) agreed to form a coalition government with other parties. The PML-N on Tuesday nominated 72-year-old Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate instead of Nawaz.
Nawaz's PML-N was the largest party with 75 seats, while Imran Khan's PTI-backed candidates won the highest number of seats overall. Imran has ruled out forming a coalition with PML-N and PPP and will join hands with Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) to form the government.
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