ISLAMABAD: Three little-known political parties have moved the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), seeking to be registered as an alliance and allocated a joint election symbol.

The proposed name of the alliance makes the matter to be taken up for hearing by the ECP today (Tuesday) all the more interesting as they want the alliance to be registered as Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) — the name of an opposition alliance led by Mehmood Khan Achakzai.

The applicants include Pakistan Aman Tehreek Chairman Ali Sher Yousafzai, Pakistan Falahi Tehreek Chairman Fazal Aman Khan, and Pakistan Welfare Party Chairman Muhammad Farooq.

The TTAP, which sees the move as an attempt to take away its title and sabotage its resistance movement, has formed a legal team to defend its position before the ECP.

ECP set to review proposed name that matches nomenclature already in use by Achakzai-led opposition alliance

Those who will appear before the ECP on behalf of the alliance and its components include Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and retired Justice Shahid Malik.

A source in the TTAP said the alliance had been formed to resist unconstitutional and undemocratic moves and strive for the supremacy of the Constitution. He said alliances had been formed in the past which were not registered with the ECP but carried forward their respective movements. That is why the alliance had not been registered, he added.

Veteran politician Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who also heads his own Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), was made chairman of the TTAP, weeks after the February 8 general elections. The PTI, PkMAP and Balochistan National Party-Mengal are among the major parties of the alliance.

The alliance alleges that the mandate of PTI was stolen and it does not acknowledge the present government as a genuine representative of the voters. The opposition alliance recently put on hold its countrywide public meetings and protests, mainly, in the wake of floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2025