ISLAMABAD: The PTI has decided to hold intra-party polls on Feb 5, but the party leaders are not hopeful about the desired outcome. The PTI has approached four political parties, including religiopolitical outfits, in hope its ‘independent’ members will join these parties after the election, which will allow the former ruling party to retain its reserved seats through proxy measures.

It also believes the establishment will not allow any political party to gain a simple majority, and a ‘coalition government’ will be installed with strings attached. This was disclosed during a media briefing by PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan, also the federal election commissioner for the intra-party polls, on Thursday.

According to Mr Hassan, the intra-party elections will be held on Feb 5 and all arrangements were finalised.

“We have opened a portal on the website…and only registered members will be allowed to contest elections. Candidates can get nomination papers from offices across the country or can download them from the website,” said the PTI leader.

He added that they would submit the result to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), but they were not hoping for any relief from the watchdog. He feared the ECP may not allot the PTI its symbol or say that the elected independent members would not be allowed to join the party since it did not have lawmakers in the lower house of parliament.

According to the rules, independent members can only join those political parties which have at least one member in the National Assembly.

“If that situation develops, our independent candidates will join other parties, allowing us to get the reserved and minority seats. I do not want to mention the names of those parties as they will be pressurised from now onwards,” he said.

However, the PTI lea­der later revealed that Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen and JUP-Sherani may be contacted.

When contacted for co­mment on the intra-party polls, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad said the election wat­chdog would be the final decision-making authority.