The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were ineligible for contesting in the upcoming general elections. However, ECP approved 123 political parties for contesting.
According to details, PTI and MQM were excluded from the list of parties eligible for contesting in elections because, PTI had not completed intra-party elections and MQM had failed to submit details of assets from 2010.
The parties who made the lucky list included Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Pakistan Awami Tehreek, APML and others. All of these parties had completed their intra-party polls before. It is important to mention that PTI Sialkot intra-party elections had to be delayed because of the violence that broke out between PTI workers during the polls.
In the recent intra-party of the PTI, old party stalwarts bounced back with majority votes. Party leadership had said that it was a message to former party members who had left the party because of intra-party election rows. PTI had boasted that the return of old party members showed that there was a difference between “family parties” and parties which aimed to bring true democracy.