PTI allies with SUP for seat adjustments

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Sindh United Party (SUP) have agreed on seat adjustments in the general elections scheduled to be held later this year, with the possibility of turning it into a ruling alliance if they make it to power.

Leaders from both parties held a meeting at Haider Manzil, the SUP headquarters in Karachi, on Monday to discuss the terms of their working relationship. SUP chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah hosted the PTI delegation, which included the party’s Sindh President MNA Arif Alvi and former provincial chief minister Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi. SUP spokesperson Khawaja Naveed Amin told The News that the two parties have initially agreed only on fielding mutual candidates in the upcoming elections across Sindh. He said they are open to an alliance if needed, such as for forming government in the province.

A joint statement issued after the meeting stated that bad governance and corruption are rampant across the country, especially in Sindh, and there is no hope of getting rid of them until honest leadership and parties make it to power.

“For the past two years the PTI and the SUP have held dialogues, and today they agreed on seat adjustment. They also agreed that Sindh has been almost destroyed because of bad governance and corruption by the Pakistan Peoples Party [PPP], and due to unemployment the people of the province are living in hunger and humiliation.”

The parties claimed that they are waging a struggle against corruption, saying that because of their like-mindedness they are creating a joint platform to approach the masses ahead of the polls. They hoped that people would vote for them for a better future and a transparent government. They criticised the country’s former president and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, saying that he and his associates should be subjected to accountability before the elections in the interest of democracy.

PML-F leader joins PTI

In a news conference held later, PTI leaders announced that Altaf Nizamani, a landlord in Tando Muhammad Khan, quit the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) to join their party. They also announced that Nizamani will be the PTI’s candidate for the PS-68 constituency (Mirpurkhas-V) in the upcoming polls.