Differences emerge in PTI on party tickets

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has empowered its district presidents across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to allocate party tickets to candidates for local bodies’ elections in their respective districts and it has also been decided not to issue party tickets in those village and neighbourhood councils where severe disputes between the party workers have emerged.

Talking to The Express Tribune an official of PTI said that it was true that there were severe differences between the workers for the tickets at village and neighbourhood council level despite efforts to remove them.

“The number of candidates is so large that the party cannot handle them as no one is willing to step aside and provide others the opportunity so the party leadership has been in a permanent fix these days,” said an official of PTI, adding that those party workers who were denied PTI tickets had decided to go for it as independent candidates and divide the party.

“Workers have been directed to contact their district presidents for tickets and consultations instead of approaching party highups on provincial level” he said, adding that workers have also been directed to solve their disputes through consultations.

Local government elections are not an easy one for PTI and other parties as workers demanded tehsil nazim tickets and district leadership wanted to give tickets to their own candidates, resulting in verbal attacks and counter attacks.

“There are widespread disputes in every party but since the PTI is ruling party and everyone expects it to win the elections so its workers are trying to get the tickets at all levels,” said another party leader, adding that there are local MPAs who have their own groups and the district presidents have their own support base in each district and serious differences have emerged between them.

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“In most districts PTI and other parties including JUI-F and ANP as well as PML-N are not able to announce their candidates for tehsil nazim and district nazims because of thse disputes,” he said.

“First everyone was not expecting the elections so soon and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision to hold village and neighbourhood council elections on party basis has increased the difficulties of all parties to a greater degree,” he maintained, adding that there were already sufficient enough disputes on tehsil nazims and district mayors posts within the parties but now they have to deal with these disputes on village council level too.

“Every party would lose votes due to these differences as party workers are highly divided and unhappy blaming that influential MPAs and district party leaders have awarded their own blue-eyed but the PTI would face the most damage in this regard simply because it is in power,” he said.