Imran Khan's party says independent candidates, who won Feb 8 elections in Pakistan, will join Sunni Ittehad Council

File Photo/AFP

The incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Monday said that the party-backed independent candidates, who won the February 8 elections, will join the Sunni Ittehad Council.

The Sunni Ittehad Council is an alliance of Islamic political and religious parties in the Muslim-majority country which represents followers of the Sunni school of Islam.

"Our candidates in the National Assembly, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies will join the Sunni Ittehad Council," Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said.

Though independent candidates backed by the party won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) - have announced that they will form a coalition government after the February 8 elections resulted in a hung Parliament.

The winning independent candidates had to join a party within 3 days after the notification of the results.

The post-poll alliance by the PML-N and the PPP could mean that PTI will not be able to form the next federal government, prompting Khan's party to allege that the two rival parties were trying to steal the people's mandate with the help of the powerful establishment.

Khan's beleaguered party received a major boost on Saturday when a senior government official in charge of the election process in the garrison city of Rawalpindi alleged that rigging took place and dragged the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice into it.

Buoyed by the allegations of vote rigging, the PTI on Sunday demanded a judicial probe into the manipulation of the results of the elections.

Independent candidates - a majority backed by former prime minister Imran Khan's PTI party won 93 National Assembly seats in the election.

The PML-N won 75 seats while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has also agreed to support them with their 17 seats.

To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly. (With inputs from PTI)