Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza has said that the PTI move to join SIC was to bring them “under one umbrella”, and was conveyed to him via the party’s top leaders.

“The purpose of joining SIC was to bring PTI candidates under one umbrella so the plans of other parties to pressurise candidates would not be successful,” he said, adding that the target was achieved as their votes for most elections in the Parliament were secure.

During an interview with DawnNewsTV, Raza confirmed that Imran made the decision to join SIC, adding that the decision was conveyed to him through PTI leaders such as chairman Gohar Khan, secretary general Omar Ayub Khan and spokesperson Raoof Hasan.

Regarding Ali Zafar’s criticism of the decision, Raza said it was possible that Zafar was not part of the team that met Imran when the decision was finalised as “three different teams met Imran”.