Claim: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to form an alliance with PTI-P — the party’s breakaway faction led by Pervez Khattak — to form a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Fact: The claim is false. Negotiations between PTI and PTI-P have been confirmed by the parties’ leaders, but the final announcement to form a government together in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not been made. The PTI’s core committee members voiced opposition to collaborating with the PTI Parliamentarians, while the PTI’s social media coordinator, Azhar Mashwani, also denied that a final decision had been made.
On 15 February 2024, The Current published an image (archive) on its Instagram page which showed PTI’s founder Imran Khan and PTI-P’s leader Pervez Khattak, with the text: “PTI to form KP government with Khattak’s Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentarians”.
On the same day, Geo News also published a report with the headline: “U-Turn: Imran Khan ‘okays’ alliance with PTI-P to form govt in KP”. This headline may mislead some readers into believing that the PTI and PTI-P are officially forming a government in KP. The report does not make that claim, instead citing unnamed sources who said Imran Khan has given a green signal to PTI-P to join the PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and that the PTI has decided to forge an alliance with Khattak’s party following the refusal of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Fact or Fiction?
The claim that PTI is set to form a government with Pervez Khattak’s party is false. In reality, negotiations between PTI and PTI-P have been confirmed by the parties’ leaders, but a final announcement on the decision to form a government together has not been made.
On Geo News’ show Capital Talk, Barrister Ali Zafar, a PTI leader and former law minister, stated on 15 February 2024 that Khattak’s party has offered to collaborate with them by leaving their party to allow space for PTI-backed independent candidates to join it and avail the reserved seats by satisfying the legal requirement regarding the electoral symbol. However, he highlighted that this matter is still under discussion and is only aimed towards a temporary alliance.
Samaa reported the results of a meeting within PTI’s core committee held on the same day, in which the members of the committee voiced opposition to collaborating with the PTI Parliamentarians, which is headed by the PTI’s former leader, Pervez Khattak. It was revealed that cooperation with these entities was deemed unfeasible as per the collective opinion of the core committee members, the report added.
PTI’s social media coordinator, Azhar Mashwani, also confirmed to Soch Fact Check that members of the party’s core committee have voiced their opposition to forming a government with the PTI-P and that a final decision to form a government with them has definitely not been reached as claimed by misleading news reports.
The Current also published an update (archive) to this effect, a few hours after the initial post, stating that, “PTI denies news of alliance with PPP, Khattak’s party”, without updating its previous news report on the matter.
Virality
The claim received more than 1,095 likes and 80 comments on Instagram and was also shared on Facebook here, here and here.
Conclusion: The claim that the PTI is set to form a government with Pervez Khattak’s party is false. Their leaders have confirmed negotiations between the two parties, but the final announcement to form a government together has not been made.
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