Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday announced that the party is in contact with MQM-P, Jamaat-i-Islami and independent senators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to form an 'independent' opposition bloc rivalling that led by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, who was elected leader of the opposition in the upper house on Thursday.

The PTI had opposed Rehman's nomination, claiming that supporting a PPP candidate would damage the party's reputation. However, earlier this month when the senate chairman and deputy chairman election was taking place, the PTI backed a PPP-led alliance of parties opposing the PML-N bloc, extending support to PPP's Saleem Mandviwalla for the post of deputy chairman.

PTI leader Azam Swati — who had been nominated for the post of Senate opposition leader by the PTI earlier this month — told DawnNewsTV that his party had formed a "strategy to counter PPP" in the upper house of the Parliament.

Swati, however, did not specify how the 'independent opposition group' would function within the Senate.

He added that the PTI would raise its voice against the "rampant corruption" in PPP-governed Sindh, and claimed that PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Zardari and disqualified premier Nawaz Sharif were "equally responsible for the ruin of the country".

Swati said he planned to visit Karachi along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the coming days.

Sherry Rehman is the first woman opposition leader in the 45-year history of the Senate. She replaced her party colleague Aitzaz Ahsan, who retired after completion of his six-year term as senator on March 11.

Rehman received support from 33 opposition senators to clinch the position. Besides 21 members of her own party, one senator each of the Awami National Party and the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, six independents from Fata and four independents from Balochistan were among her supporters.

Swati could get the support of only 19 senators — 12 from his own PTI, five of the MQM and two of the JI.