ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday denied widespread media reports that it would hold talks with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to form a government at the center as well as with a PTI breakaway faction for a coalition set-up in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan faces new political tensions as independent members of parliament, backed by Khan, formed the largest group in the legislature after Feb. 8 elections. However, they cannot form a government on their own, having run as individuals and not a party. Khan is himself in jail and was barred from running in the election. His PTI is at loggerheads with the powerful military and alleges that the vote was rigged. The caretaker government and election commission have rejected those accusations.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies, including the PPP, who both emerged as the largest and second largest parties in parliament respectively, have agreed to form a coalition government at the center. The PTI has said it does not trust any of the legacy parties and will not form a coalition with them.
On Thursday, there were widespread reports on Pakistani media that the PTI was ready for talks with the PPP to form a government at the center and with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf- Parliamentarian (PTI-P) group, the party’s breakaway faction led by former Khan loyalist Pervez Khattak, for a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
But the PTI has denied both reports.
“We have made it clear categorically that PTI is not going to sit across the table engaging with PML-N, PPP or MQM for that matter,” the party said in a text message to reporters. “We have made it time and again.”
PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spokesperson Ikram Katana said there was “no truth” in news reports that Khan had approved an alliance with the PTI-P.
Ziaullah Khan Bangash, secretary information for the PTI-P, said the party had received no communication from the PTI with regards to an alliance.
“We also came to know about this issue through the media,” he told Arab News.
“OMAR AYUB KHAN FOR PM”
Earlier on Thursday, Khan nominated Omar Ayub Khan, the general secretary of the PTI, as his candidate for the post of prime minister. The PTI has also announced Ali Amin Gandapur as its candidate for chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Mian Aslam Iqbal as CM Punjab.
“Omar Ayub has been appointed as the prime minister candidate by Khan,” PTI leader Asad Qaiser told reporters outside Rawalpindi’s central jail after a meeting with Khan. “We hope that the PM will be ours, and Omar Ayub will be our representative.”
Qaiser called the Feb. 8 elections “heavily rigged” and said the PTI would announce a date for nationwide protests by the evening today, Thursday.
He said Khan had tasked him to engage with other political parties protesting rigging to formulate a joint strategy.
The polls were marred by a mobile service shutdown and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that the vote was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments. Several political parties and candidates have held protests against the results since Feb. 8 and Khan’s PTI has challenged many of the results in court.
The Pakistani caretaker government says the measures were taken as the run-up to elections was marred by attacks on rallies, election offices and candidates. Twenty-eight people were killed in a number of attacks in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces bordering Afghanistan on the eve of elections and 16 people were killed in attacks on polling day itself.