Pakistan’s election commission will hold an open hearing on a petition by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party-backed Sunni Ittehad Council seeking the allocation of its share of reserved seats, a media report said on Tuesday. Candidates of 71-year-old Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) fought as independents after the party could not directly participate in the February 8 elections due to the non-allotment of its iconic electoral symbol – the cricket bat. To receive the PTI’s share of reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies, the winning independent candidates backed by the party joined the right-wing Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) – an alliance of Islamic political and religious parties in the Muslim-majority country which represents followers of the school of Sunni Islam.