PTI’s so-called plan C to unify its independently elected lawmakers under one umbrella after the February 8 vote seems to have met a stillbirth as Election Rules 2017 would not allow PTI-backed candidates to join the party.

After PTI’s plan to contest the general election 2024 on the symbol of a cricket bat failed, the party crafted an ingenious scheme of going to polls on the tickets of PTI-Nazriyati and this was called PTI’s plan B.

However, PTI-N’s Chief Akhtar Iqbal Dar disowned the tickets he had allegedly issued to PTI candidates at a hastily arranged press conference in Lahore.

PTI then came up with a plan C which focused mostly on a post-election scenario.

It revolved around the idea that independently elected PTI-backed candidates would join the party after the election and this would allow PTI to lay claim on seats reserved for women and minorities in assemblies. Reserved seats are allotted to political parties based on the number of general seats they win in the election.

Parts of the details about plan C were revealed by PTI leader and lawyer Salman Akram Raja during an interview with ARY’s Waseem Badami.

Raja said candidates backed but the PTI would still be bound to follow the instructions of PTI leaders because they submitted before the Returning Officers that they were members of the PTI.

However, a closer reading of Election Rule 2017 suggests otherwise. The rules make it impossible for any independent candidate to join the PTI because the party has not been allotted any electoral symbol.

Rule 92 of the Election Rules 2017 lays out for formula for the allocation of reserved seats to political parties. It clearly says that independent candidates who join a political “within three days of the publication in the official Gazette of the names of the returned candidates” would be considered members of the said political party and their number will be added to the total number of the party’s seats.

However, Rule 94 of the Election Rules 2017 contains the following explanation for a political party to be accepted as a political party: “For the purpose of this rule, the expression “political party” means a political party to which a symbol has been allocated by the Commission.”

Hence, a political entity without a symbol cannot be considered a political party and independent candidates cannot join it.

PTI’s Taimur Saleem Jhagra, who is well-versed in election rules, has reportedly confirmed that such rules exist but said that the party is considering several options.

Jhagra said the PTI plans to hold an intra-party election once again to show compliance with the election law.

This would allow it to become a ‘political party’ again per the Election Rules 2017.