Following the backlash over the party’s ticket award, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was planning to include party vice-president Shah Mehmood Qureshi and general secretary Asad Umar in the review committee to clear objections, JEE News reported on Saturday.
The PTI on Thursday formed a four-member committee to clear objections over ticket distribution, which has always been an issue in the party.
The panel included Mossadegh Abbasi, Ejaz Chaudhary, Rai Hassan Nawaz and Aoon Abbas. However, after a backlash from party workers and supporters, Khan is likely to involve some senior members to decide appeals related to ticket distribution.
The PTI earlier this week finalized the list of 297 candidates for the polls, which the Supreme Court (SC) ordered to be held on May 14. Khan had decided to personally interview all party candidates to maintain merit in awarding party tickets.
The former prime minister – who was ousted by a no-confidence motion in April last year – conducted one-on-one interviews with all the candidates from April 6 to April 18 to select the nominees.
According to the list of candidates released on the PTI website, Raja Basharat, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Umar Dar, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Hashim Dogar, Zain Qureshi and Usman Buzdar have been given party tickets.
PTI has become the only major party to formally start the election process. However, several senior party leaders were barred from contesting elections in Punjab, angering activists and supporters alike.
Qureshi and senior vice-president Fawad Chaudhry’s hopes – if any – of becoming the chief minister of Punjab also died after the party chief denied them tickets to the provincial assembly.
Speaking to a private news channel earlier this week, Fawad expressed his “disgust” at being denied a ticket.
To a question whether he would be PTI’s candidate for chief minister, he said the decision had to be taken at the party chairman’s level.
Fawad also advised Khan not to announce the name of the chief ministerial candidate before the elections, be it Sardar Usman Buzdar or someone else.
Who has been awarded tickets?
Along with other districts in Punjab, the PTI has given party tickets to its candidates from Lahore, also known as the stronghold of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The big surprise this time is that former provincial minister Dr. Murad Ras, who is also a close relative of Hamza Shehbaz, was not given a ticket for the provincial assembly seat.
He may be the party’s choice for the National Assembly elections while two former ticket holders of NA seats, including Dr Yasmin Rashid and Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan, have been fielded as candidates for the provincial assembly. .
Dr. Yasmeen Rashid contested twice directly against members of Sharif family in NA seat in 2013, 2017 by-elections and 2018 general elections and once got more than 100,000 votes but could not win.
She was elected to the Punjab Assembly seats reserved for women and was also the Health Minister of Punjab. He has been ticketed from PP 173.
Former PTI ticket holder Dewan Ghulam Mohiuddin from NA-124, who lost to PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the 2018 by-election, is contesting from PP-147, from which Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman has contested. Continually winning. From 2002 while it was PP-141.
PTI leader Yasir Geelani has been given ticket from PP 144 while former Advocate General Arif Bhandar’s relative Asif Bhandar has been given ticket from PP 145. Abdul Karim Khan has been given ticket from PP 148 of Shalamar Town.
Mian Aslam Iqbal (PP-170), Mian Mehmood-ul-Rashid (PP-168), Sarfraz Khokhar (PP-166) and Malik Nadeem Bara (PP-167) are among those who contested the last general elections on PTI tickets. I was successful.
Apart from this, Mian Akram Usman, who was successful in the previous by-election on the seat vacated by Abdul Aleem Khan, has also been given a ticket from PP 169.
Khalid Gujjar has been given a ticket from PP 165 while three-time MPA Chaudhry Mohammad Mansha Sindhu has been fielded from PP 163.
Interestingly, Shabbir Gujjar and Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, both former PTI ticket holders and July 2022 winners, were not given tickets.
Barrister Hamad Azhar was also not given a ticket, but is the party’s likely choice for the National Assembly seat to be won in 2018.
According to the list released by PTI, the candidates who have been given party tickets are Azam Khan Niazi (PP-159), Zubair Niazi (PP-172), Meher Wajid Azim (PP-171), Haider Majeed ( PP-160) are included. Amar Bashir Gujjar (PP-161), Ahmar Bhatti (PP-164), and Khalid Gujjar (PP-165).
PTI has fielded former Vice Chairman Wasa Sheikh Imtiaz from PP 155 while former Toyota Chairman Hafiz Farhat has been given ticket from PP 157.
