The party’s popularity seems to be crumbling in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). PHOTO: FILE
Contrary to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s public assertions of sweeping the general elections, the party’s popularity seems to be crumbling in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) – widely considered to be its stronghold.
Reports of internal rifts over the allotment of tickets are surfacing with party activists accusing the provincial cabinet and parliamentary board members of favouritism and ignoring ideological party workers.
Several notable leaders such as Hazara Region President Ali Asghar, provincial youth wing’s former president Murad Saeed from Swat, Shibli Faraz from Kohat, Ziaullah Afridi from Peshawar, Nadeem Khan from Mardan and provincial leader Hashim Baber were not considered for party tickets to contest the polls under PTI’s banner.
Furthermore, on PK-83 constituency of Swat, a party ticket was given to Azmat Ali Khan who is the son-in-law of Azam Swati and has recently joined PTI, whereas in Nowshera, tickets were given to those loyal to Pervaiz Khattak instead of old party leaders from the district. Similarly, in NA-2, a ticket was given to former bureaucrat Khalid Masood instead of Hamidul Haq and Faheem Khan.
Party activists accused the provincial parliamentary board members of unfairly allotting a ticket to Arbab Jhandad, a relative of former Awami National Party K-P agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan.
Hashim Baber told The Express Tribune the district cabinets were given 24 hours to shortlist candidates for party tickets, while those who lost the intra-party elections were not even included in the parliamentary board.
“The provincial parliamentary board’s decisions were made against PTI’s policy, and party workers at the grassroot level were not consulted regarding electable candidates,” said Baber, alleging tickets were only distributed among Azam Swati’s and Pervaiz Khattak’s groups.
Consequently, Baber has decided to contest elections as an independent candidate.
PTI’s provincial leadership is also facing criticism from Insaf Youth Wing leaders over not allotting 25% of the total seats to youth candidates as was previously pledged by PTI Chairperson Imran Khan. Under the policy, youth (below the age of 35) affiliated with PTI should have been allotted tickets for seven seats out of 35 for the National Assembly from K-P, and 25 seats for the provincial assembly out of the 99 general seats. However, the ground reality goes against the announced promise, claimed members of the youth wing.
Taking notice of growing differences within the party, the central leadership has decided to convene a review meeting of the central parliamentary board on Sunday (today) in which final decisions will be taken regarding allotment of tickets, said former K-P Insaf Student Federation President Hussain Akhunzada.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2013.
COMMENTS (51)
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Bubble of PTI is starting to burst
@Ismael: Risk is yours. It is your head you can hit it against wall.
I am from Upper Dir and PTI is the strongest party in our constituency. From what I know, PTI will clean sweep KPK without any doubts. Vote is for the party not the candidates.
I am from Nowshera, and the article is stating the truth. Giving the ticket to Pervaiz khattak destroyed our enthusiasm. He is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Heres to hoping for a none of the above option :(
When any political party comes to you and asks for your vote then you(as a muslim) have a duty to ask them; whether they will implement Islam? if yes then vote for them if no then do not vote for them. There is no third option. We know all political parties in Pakistan who are taking part in elections, do not have the agenda to implement Islam. So the question is why should we vote for them? Some will say that Imran Khan is better than other corrupt parties so we should vote for him. The problem remain, his agenda is secular so we are not allowed to vote for him.
i it is the time we call khan CAPTAIN /yes sir now on we all call khan CAPTAIN OF PAKISTAN ,NO MORE PRIME MINSTER / CAPTAIN I KHAN.
Please PTI lovers. Talk some sense. Without a stable political party how will IK be able to run the country if he wins the election. When he cannot manage his party then on what ground are we supposed to trust him with controlling the already destroyed country?
As if those who have been denied tickets in other parties are celebrating day and night. It is just natural but general voter and even those denied tickets will go for PTI. All the media is after the dissent in PTI but thanks God there is none, at least among its members. It will be a shame for members of any party to vote against the party on the matter of tickets.
TICKETS HAVE NOT BEEN FINALIZED. WHAT IS THIS THEN?
@Ch. Allah Daad I don't know what is winnable candidate in your dictionary. I know most people in cities just vote for the party symbol regardless of the candidate's name. And btw when IK gives ticket to new people u say they are not 'winnable' when he does and gives to some winning candidate you cry saying where's the change. Get a life dude.
@Tariq Mahmood - actually PTI supporters are intelligent enough to "understand" such news. The media is making hue and cry over lots of stuff. The reality is far different. If the tickets are not given to 25% of youth we'll criticise PTI for that, but this artcle no where proves that!! In fact the truth is people dont know these candidates at all, so how wud they know who is better? How does ET knw who is better?--Sohail Warraich recenlty said that "29 OUT OF 35 PTI candidates in KPK are NEW FACES!" -This is the true change. Every body canot be given tiket.
so the bubble has finally burst
candidates doesnt matter at all. Vote is for person whosoever is under the flag of PTI.
Imran Khan is surrounded by unpolitical people who have made Imran Khan think as a winner without any sense. Imran Khan will keep calling "We are winner" till 11 may evening. But the reality is that candidate matters 70% and party matters only 30%. If given tickets to the people who are not electables then no way for PTI. PTI supporters are far away from reality. If you are well wisher of PTI as I am. I want to enforce Imran Khan to do politics in politics. Its not like running SKMCH. If you think you are a youth and you are voting for Imran then Imran will surely win, please come to reality. Work for a Political Party. All the members in Parliamentary board are not professionally politician. After loosing election they all will leave. Someone will be in dentist, someone will be running restaurant etc. but the fact is that Imran Khan and Pakistan will suffer from these stupid decisions. Imran Khan's party is being hijacked. e.g In gujrat, PTI candidates do not have a single electable in them. Intra party election losers are given ticket which means they have disappointed majority of PTI's members because Majority of PTI members have voted for the winners. They will not vote for PTI if PTI does not respect the voice of the people. Imran Khan is not doing what he promised. He promised to all PTI members that you will chose your own leaders. And finally its not as easy as Insafians are thinking to make Naya Pakistan. Imran Khan and Co. doing favouratism in alloting tickets. If this is Naya Pakistan, then Porana Pakistan is same. Why we waste money and time for these people. PML N has a huge vote bank. You can only win in Dreams as Imran Khan has already won in dream.
After reading above comment, I am thinking that what is difference between PPP's illiterate Jiyala and most literate PTI supporter? No difference at all
Vote for PTI, even if the candidate is a Dog!
In Faisalabad there is not a single winning candidate of PTI. The party which does not win Faisalabad, cannot win majority. PTI's supporters are living in fool's paradise. Enjoy there but don't fool others.
Vote is for PTI if even sky fall. Kaptan you will win..inshallah
Listen Hassan Ali .......
what your thoughts we dont concern!!! we will give vote to PTI even what so ever or else is the candidate.... WE TRUST OUR LEADER !!!
no problem its happens everywhere! but is it true or not nothing can be said regarding it unless one himself is not involved http://tribune.com.pk/story/532112/election-tickets-pml-n-activists-accuse-leaders-of-favouritism/
Popularity not the un-popularatity should be matter of surprise.
@ET, there are rifts 10 times worse than this in other parties. I never see headlines about those. Where is your objectivity ? Shame on you!!
This is tactic of media and opportunist. So we will not get confused and will vote PTI. Come what may. This is the time for change not to quarrel with each other.
please it is a party of losers. NO pukhtoon will vote for them
@Farrukh: The disgraceful TV show says it all.
This is happening in all parties. Why make an issue out only for PTI only?
A question to ET, do you think every body who submitted their papers will get the ticket?
Yes or No. Then some people will always be happy and some wont. And people who were their for party ticket will surely leave.
If a party can't finalise it's candidates half way through the eletion process, what can you expect from it--- More of the same.
This is our last chance so please Vote for Imran Khan !
Guys what happened to Mubasher Lucman why he is behaving like this suddenly and became anti PTI !
ET seems to have a special grudge against PTI. Which party does not have dissensions amongst them. Isn't this what democracy is all about. What does ET want straight lines and marching to the same tune and nodding heads in unison? Why doesn't ET mention the dissensions in PPP or PML? Long live PTI.
Well I believe for PTI the candidates will not matter much, as people will vote for party. And so will I along with my whole family.
ET always try to make mountain out of molehill on pity issues of PTI election process. But it is good for the readers and lovers of Imran Khan(IK) to know that all the status quo are against IK and try to dent IK whenever any chance come. This feeling of all the evil forces working against IK provide fuel, courage and stimulus to us for standing with IK and keeping our leader head high among the dwarf of political forces.
...Vote PTI even if it gives tickets to all the most corrupt candidates? Great idea!
PTI supporters are like sheep, they would vote for even a corrupt murderer if he had a picture with IK plastered on billboards. Naya Pakistan is really just like old Pakistan, maybe even worse.
these news are fake and should not be taken seriously. 11 may remember the day forget the rest !!!
Its there first election campaign on a massive scale so probably this election experience will make them more mature for 2018. In my opinion, PTI should had sorted out party's internal elections and ticket matter 4-5 months before then now. For now, there election campaign has been badly affected as Imran's time is being wasted in sorting out these rifts and issues.
I am not sure why ET is so obssessed with Imran Khan and always comes up with stories potraying a negative image of PTI. PML-N and PPP are also facing similar situation with internal party rifts and people hanging on electric poles with the plea that tickets not being awarded on merit but no such news came to my attention from ET. It is a humble request to media to play an impartial role in the upcoming elections.
Such news will continue to pop up as we proceed towards the elections, we should make sure that we are not affected by such news. No matter what happens we should make sure that we go and VOTE. If we get dissapointed and donot VOTE then NO CHANGE IS COMING !!!
I don't know what popularity is ET talking about, people are going to vote for IK and he is still out there meeting people, working with people, and inspiring people every day.
what does this have to do with pti's popularity.. these are tickets issue which will be resolved, some workers are not happy with the tickets allocated by the board hence a review process is taking place . this does not mean pti's popularity is fading
@LovePTI: This is the problem with us pakistanis ..we have our loyalties for the parties and not for pakistan .. when you see that PTI or any other party for that matter goes against the morals just to get into power, why do you all still keep supporting it ?
Regardless of candidate, my vote is for PTI. Buy the way IK cannot give tickets to all 4000 candidates that have applied.This is the part of the game. Recently i attended TRP convention in Lahore. MASHALLAH people have show great response. Youth will vote for PTI , candidate doesn't matters.INSHALLAG Naya Pakistan is not far away.
Some people level allegations just because they don't get ticket. Cheap means. I don't say in this case, the allegations are justified or not but this is how it works in Pakistan. Not matter what happens, my vote as well as my extended family vote is for PTI.
Sold out Media trying hard to let PTI down, but we just damn care about such news. Vote Imran Save Pakistan
Guys, i know this is not ideal, but its part of the process...not everybody is a 'farishta' in PTI....so Keep calm and vote for Imran
ET has some special reasons to highlight and make a mole a mountain
As rightly said by Kaptaan, Party will get the vote not the candidate. I will vote for PTI irrespective of the candidate.
Its vote for any PTI Khamba this time. We trust our LEADER..!
I don't know about others but no matter what happens I will continue to support PTI. Once a Insafian, always an Insafian
To be frank, candidate doesn't matter to us youth. Vote is for Balla and Imran Khan. Whoever has PTI ticket. Go with confidence Imran Khan. Let the people bicker.