PTI announces ticket holders for election

Some constituencies left vacant due to possible electoral alliance

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced party candidates for majority of the National and provincial assembly constituencies for elections 2018 scheduled to be held on July 25.

PTI Chief Imran Khan said that all tickets have been decided on merit, adding that it was impossible to accommodate all ticket aspirants. He has advised unsuccessful candidates not to feel dejected and support him and PTI to materialize the dream of ‘Naya Pakistan’.

Khan would contest elections on five NA constituencies from Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Mianwali and Bannu. PTI has also fielded its candidate Ghulam Sarwar Khan against former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar.

Party candidates have been announced for 63 per cent of the National Assembly constituencies (173 out of total 272 NA seats) and 53 per cent of the provincial assembly constituencies (310 out of total 577 seats). However, the decision about reserved seats in all assemblies is yet to be announced.

Moreover, the party has also given tickets to six women, which include Zartaj Gul, Khadeeja Aamir, Fatima Bashir Cheema, Ayesha Nazir, Dr Yasmine Rashid and Ghulam Bibi.

Punjab

PTI has finalized candidates for 112 National Assembly seats from Punjab out of a total of 141 NA constituencies. Similarly, some candidates for some 185 seats have been finalized out of 297 provincial assembly seats.

However, the party has left two constituencies each vacant from Rawalpindi and Gujrat due to a possible electoral alliance with Awami Muslim League led by Sheikh Rashid and Chaudhrys of Gujrat.  In addition to this, candidates for the two constituencies in Lodhran, which is the native city of Jehangir Khan Tareen have also not been announced yet. One constituency each from Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan also remain undecided.

There are also some constituencies, which remain disputed over party tickets due to the presence of strong political parties in the fold.  These fall in Chakwal, Jehlum, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Okara, Chiniot, Bhakkar, Pakpattan, Layyah, Bahawalnagar, etc.

Tahir Sadiq, Ghulam Abbas, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Nawab Sher Waseer, Nisar Jutt, Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, Bilal Ahmad Virk, Sumsam Ali Bokhari, Hiraj family from Khanewal, Khusro Bakhtiar, Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, etc. are also awarded party tickets ignoring old-timers in the party.



Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The party has announced candidates for 31 out of total 39 National Assembly seats in K-P while tickets have been given for 81 provincial assembly seats out of a total 99.

Constituencies for which the candidates are yet to be decided include one each from Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Mansehra, Mardan, Charsada, Kohat, and Lakki Marwat.

K-P former chief minister Pervez Khattak and his son-in-law Imran Khattak will contest elections from Nowshera, while KP former speaker assembly Asad Qaiser is set to contest from Swabi. Former MNA Murad Saeed has also been given ticket while Ali Muhammad Khan and Sheharyar Afridi have been declined.



Sindh and Balochistan

PTI has fielded only 10 candidates out of a total of 61 NA seats in Sindh with 21 candidates declared out of a total of 130 provincial assembly seats.

With regards to Balochistan, the party has decided candidates for 10 out of 16 National Assembly seats while ticket holders for 23 out of 51 Balochistan Assembly seats have been announced.



Fata and Islamabad

Imran Khan will contest for one of the three seats from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with Asad Umar and Raja Khurram Nawaz contesting the remaining two.

With regards to Fata, PTI announced candidates for seven NA constituencies out of the total 11. Decision is yet to be taken on one each constituency in Kyber Agency, Kurrum Agency, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.