Flawed decisions cost PTI over 80 seats: Marwat

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lost over 80 reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies due to its own flawed decisions, senior leader Sher Afzal Marwat said Thursday.

Marwat, speaking to Geo News’ Shahzeb Khanzada, detailed two “wrong decisions” that he believed led to the embattled PTI losing reserved seats following the February 8 elections.

The lawyer-cum-politician said the PTI’s decision to withdraw from forging an electoral alliance with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Shirani (JUI-Shirani) and later striking a deal with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Nazriati (PTI-N) dealt a major blow to the party.

“There is a question mark over who brought in the batsman [electoral symbol of PTI-N] and cancelled the [deal] with Sherani sb,” he said.

Marwat said an inquiry should be conducted on party level to fix the responsibility for the wrong decisions.

“Had these decisions not been made, we would not have been deprived of the electoral symbol,” Marwat said, adding that the PTI candidates could have contested elections from the JUI-S platform even after losing the bat symbol.

The Imran Khan-founded party lost its electoral symbol ahead of the elections as the Election Commission of Pakistan said its intra-party polls were not in line with the laws, while the Supreme Court upheld the electoral body’s decision.

Moreover, Marwat said the second biggest mistake was allying with Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) to secure reserved seats.

The PTI leader claimed that they had to ally with Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) as they started receiving threats for making an electoral alliance with MWM. “Due to these flawed decisions, we lost over 80 seats,” he said.