PTI-SIC boycotts special parliamentary committee 

ISLAMABAD: The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a parliamentary alliance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has officially announced its boycott of the special parliamentary committee formed to finalize the nomination of the next Chief Justice after the enactment of the 26th Constitutional Amendment. 

According to a handout issued here, a sub-committee of the special parliamentary committee —comprising Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Ansar, Pervaiz Ashraf, and Kamran Murtaza — held a meeting with SIC member Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who informed the sub-committee that SIC members would not attend the special parliamentary committee meetings. 

The sub-committee subsequently met with National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to inform him of the SIC’s decision. 

The sub-committee was originally tasked with persuading SIC members to attend the special parliamentary committee after both PTI and SIC members skipped the committee’s first meeting, which was postponed till 8pm. 

A meeting between the sub-committee and SIC representatives was later held in the speaker’s chamber.

As per the official handout, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and sub-committee members attended the meeting. 

During the session, the sub-committee members once again extended an invitation to SIC-PTI, urging them to participate in the committee’s proceedings but the meeting yielded no results. 

Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan confirmed that the SIC has decided not to attend any of the special parliamentary committee meetings.