The parliamentary board of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) late Tuesday night gave into pressure and awarded Aleem Khan the party ticket for NA-127.
Earlier, sources had revealed that the parliamentary board had turned down Aleem Khan for the party ticket, following which PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Aleem Khan had exchanged hot words. There were also rumors that Aleem Khan would contest as an independent candidate.
However, the parliamentary board changed its decision and awarded the NA-127 party ticket to Aleem Khan, the party’s alleged biggest financier.
Furthermore, PTI’s parliamentary board issued a list of candidates who were awarded party tickets to contest in the upcoming elections. The candidates included, include Hamid Zaman (NA-118), Mohammad Madni (NA-119), Dr Yasmeen Rashid (NA-120), Barrister Hammad Azhar (NA-121), Imran Khan (NA-122), Mehmoodur Rasheed (NA-126) and Abdul Aleem Khan (NA-127).
Furthermore, Imran Khan denied a party ticket to Bhatti from the PP-161 constituency over allegations of rigging in the intra-party elections, local media reported.
Moreover there were internal rifts with the women’s wing of the party. The PTI Women’s Wing issued a press statement on Tuesday alleging that several deserving women had been ignored in the nominations for reserved seats to the Punjab Assembly. The press statement alleged that Kalsoom Usman, a daughter of former PTI Lahore president Mehmoodur Rasheed, Sara Naseem, Shaheena Asad, Farzana Bhatti and Mrs Farrukh Moon had been nominated because they were related to men in the party. Saloni Bukhari and Sadiya Sohail had also not campaigned for the party, the statement said. The Women’s Wing demanded selection on merit, not nepotism.
PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry had presented a list of 39 women for seats reserved in the National Assembly and PTI Women’s Wing president Munaza Hassan had forwarded a list of 64 women for seats in the Punjab Assembly.