Ex-Pak PM Imran Khan's party to hold organisational elections on March 3

Islamabad: Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's beleaguered party will conduct fresh organisational elections on March 3, it was announced on Thursday, months after the election commission annulled a previous intra-party poll.

Earlier this month, intra-party polls of the 71-year-old former-cricketer-turned-politician's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were postponed after top party leadership asserted that it could "divert" attention from the February 8 general elections.

The PTI party has announced that it will hold fresh intra-party elections on March 3, and party members will be able to submit nomination papers by Friday and Saturday, the Dawn newspaper reported.

According to the poll schedule, the scrutiny of the nomination papers will be completed by February 25, and decisions on the nominations will be made by February 27.

The polling for the organisational elections would be held at the party’s central secretariat here and PTI offices in all four provinces of the country, the report said.

Media reports on Wednesday said that Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has been nominated as the chairman, while Raoof Hassan will be the Chief Election Commissioner for the intra-party polls.

The PTI held an intra-party poll in December last year on the directions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which saw Gohar Khan's election as the party chairman.

However, its result, which some disgruntled PTI workers challenged, was annulled after a bitter court battle. Subsequently, the top electoral body deprived the party of its iconic cricket bat symbol, and party leaders contested the elections as independent candidates.

The PTI-backed independents won majority seats at the National Assembly in the February 8 general election.

However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a new coalition government, which may effectively end Khan's chances of returning to power.

PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif has been nominated as the prime minister candidate, while PPP's Asif Ali Zardari is for the president’s office. The PPP said it would not join the federal cabinet, but the Senate chairman would be that of the PPP.

The PTI on Wednesday rejected the attempts by two of its arch-rivals to form a coalition government, warning that robbing its public endorsement by the "mandate thieves" will result in the worst political instability.

To receive its share of reserved seats for women and minorities by using the platform of other like-minded parties, winning independent candidates backed by the party officially joined the rightwing Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Wednesday.

Gohar Khan and Omar Ayub Khan - PTI's candidate for the prime minister's post - did not submit affidavits to join the SIC as they plan to contest the party's fresh organisational elections, the newspaper reported.