PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians (PTI-P) chairman Pervez Khattak on Monday claimed that majority of the independent candidates would join his party after winning the elections.

Speaking to mediapersons here, he also claimed that he had rejected the offer of being awarded the ‘bat’ as the party’s election symbol, saying: “It makes no difference whether I am awarded bat or any other symbol.”

On this occasion, former MPA from Peshawar Faheem Ahmad joined PTI-P.

It is worth mentioning here that Mr Ahmad had won elections in 2018 on the PTI ticket, but later differences surfaced between him and the party, leading to his expulsion from PTI.

“Many colleagues have promised joining PTI-P after winning the Feb 8 elections,” Mr Khattak said. He said when he was the chief executive of the province he had executed a lot of developmental schemes for the people.

Criticising his former boss Imran Khan, he said in the four-year tenure of PTI government in the centre, KP was deprived of its rights. He alleged that former prime minister Imran Khan had stopped payment of development and royalty funds to KP when he was at the helm.

He said the party’s constitution would be shared with the people soon.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Election Commission of Pakistan denied offering the bat election symbol to anyone, including PTI-P chairman Pervez Khattak.

On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf termed the statement of Mr Khattak as a conspiracy to snatch the election symbol of bat from the party.

The party demanded of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to order formation of a judicial commission on the matter.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2023