Imran, Gohar finalise polls candidates in jail

PTI on verge of announcing party candidates for 2024 polls

ISLAMABAD:

Amid the echoes of Adiala Jail’s cold walls, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) founder chairman Imran Khan and the incumbent party chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, brought together by a court order, delve into the intricacies of candidate selection for the upcoming general elections, it emerged on Friday.

The recent court order has overturned the earlier restrictions and allowed the clinking of pens against paper, a newfound freedom shaping the discussions within the confines of the unexpected political arena, the party officials shared.

Jail has become a new place for political gathering for Imran, Gohar and others, they said, adding they were expected to finalise the party’s candidates for 2024 polls within a week or so.

Surprisingly, the PTI leadership is finalising poll candidates, initially, amid complaints of not being allowed to file nomination papers and now when the party candidates’ nomination papers are being rejected.

On Friday, even former premier Imran Khan’s nomination papers were rejected by National Assembly constituency NA-122 Lahore.

Read also: Imran's nomination papers from NA-122 Lahore rejected

Apart from the cases of snatching and rejection of nomination papers, the party’s election symbol has also been hanging in the balance as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recently stripped PTI of its ‘bat’ symbol ahead of polls and the legal battle between the poll body and PTI is going on over election symbol.

“Imran Khan and the incumbent chairmen have been sitting in jail to finalise candidates for the upcoming general elections on a regular basis,” a party insider shared, “they met on Friday and Saturday and are expected to finalise candidates in the next few days; maybe within a week or so.”

On Friday, Islamabad High Court’s Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb permitted PTI leaders and lawyers to hold election meetings with Imran at Adiala jail with the judge asking if the caretaker set-up wanted to “derail the polls” and observing that a “terrible system” was being run under the interim government.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Imran seeking permission for meetings with party leaders to formulate a strategy for the polls. The plea also requested IHC to instruct the jail superintendent to ensure privacy during his consultations with his legal team.

Earlier, Gohar was not allowed to take any papers and pen with him inside jail when he would go to meet Khan for finalising poll candidates. However, the party officials said, that after an order from IHC, Gohar has been granted permission to carry stationary items with him and take notes of the discussion that the two hold at jail.

Read: PTI lawyers decry ‘illegal scrutiny’

Following IHC’s order, the party officials said that they have regularly been meeting at the jail and spending roughly two hours together to discuss political and election issues, including the names of the candidates for upcoming general elections slated to be held on February 8, 2024.

Party insiders shared that Gohar met on Friday and Saturday for a couple of hours, saying the meetings would continue and the party would hopefully finalise the candidates in the next few days. As before, the party officials emphasise that Imran has the final authority to choose poll candidates.

The officials refuted a list of candidates for 2024 polls circulating in WhatsApp groups and social media, saying it was not only a fake list but carries some factual mistakes like Imran contesting polls from Islamabad. “Imran hasn’t even submitted nomination papers from Islamabad,” he quipped.

Though PTI has been deprived of its election symbol, the party high-ups had recently vowed that the party would contest polls with or without 'bat' and wouldn’t give a walkover to its opponents in the polls. Amid complaints of political engineering and not being provided a level playing field, the party officials said, PTI is all set to distribute party tickets to suitable candidates.

They said that the party has decided that the majority of the tickets would be given to lawyers this time as they not only stood by it in testing times but could effectively deal with legal issues that might arise before or after the polls.