Most PTI ticket aspirants are from Central Punjab

Party still tries to make its mark in Sindh as it attracts less applications from province compared to Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Central Punjab has surpassed the rest of the three regions of the province in terms of applications for party tickets received by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for general elections.

The party is scheduled to close its online applications by Monday midnight.

Alone from Punjab, PTI’s general elections budget has also gotten a boost of around Rs120 million in the form of ticket fee submitted by at least 1,947 ticket aspirants who wish to contest the next National and

Punjab assembly elections on a PTI ticket.
The submission of ‘non-refundable’ fee amounting to Rs50,000 is mandatory for those applying for the ticket of a provincial assembly seat while Rs100,000 for the National Assembly (NA) seat.

Currently a total of 1,947 applications have been received from Punjab province – 437 for National Assembly and 1,510 for Punjab Assembly seats.

According to the fresh delimitation, there are a total of 141 NA and 297 PA seats in Punjab.

PTI has divided Punjab into four regions – Central, South, West and North.

Central Punjab has 45 NA and 97 provincial assembly seats. PTI has so far received 170 applications from party ticket aspirants for NA seats and 550 applications for Punjab Assembly seats.

West Punjab has 27 NA and 58 provincial assembly seats and for that PTI has received 78 applications for NA and 300 applications for provincial assembly seats.

Similarly, North Punjab is consisted of 24 National Assembly and 40 provincial assembly seats. Here around 69 applicants want to contest NA elections and 280 provincial assembly seats.

Moreover, South Punjab has 46 NA and 95 provincial assembly seats. Nearly 500 applicants have so far submitted their applications to contest on 141 NA and Punjab Assembly seats from the region.

PTI organisers in different regions of Punjab while talking to The Express Tribune said the number of applications can increase today (Monday).

Earlier, the deadline for submission of applications was May 13th (Sunday) but it was extended up to May 14 (today) due to the weekly holiday of commercial banks.

They also expressed satisfaction over what they termed a “satisfactory response” the party has received from ticket aspirants in the province.

If available statistics from the Punjab are relied upon then there are a little over three applicants for each NA seat, and 19 candidates for each provincial assembly seat.

Response from Sindh

In contrast to Punjab, the interest for PTI ticket in Sindh province is far less.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) there are a total of 200 national and provincial assembly seats in the province – 70 NA and 130 Sindh assembly seats.

For 70 NA seats, PTI has received some 100 applications; while for 130 Sindh Assembly seats, some 250 applicants have applied. So the net amount has been Rs22.5 million after the fee submission for the party ticket.

In Karachi there are 21 NA and 44 provincial assembly seats.

According to the party organisers in the province, majority of the applications the party has received from Sindh are from constituencies falling in Karachi.

PTI Chief Imran Khan has also announced he will contest next general election from Karachi.

Earlier, Khan had announced that he himself will oversee the process of finalisation of party candidates while declaring that truthfulness, loyalty to the party, ability to contest election and win would be four basic qualities party would evaluate in a candidate before awarding him/her the party ticket.