Game changers: Imran injects ‘fresh blood’ into national politics

PTI awards 80% tickets to debutantes – 35% of whom are youth.

ISLAMABAD:

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan lived up to his word.

He had promised to introduce fresh blood into Pakistan’s politics, which has been monopolised for decades by feudal lords and capitalists. And he did just that.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) took ‘remarkable risks’ and awarded 80% of party tickets to political new  comers instead of relying on ‘electable’ candidates. The party, however, has full faith in these ‘non-electable’ candidates and hopes to sweep next month’s parliamentary elections.

“We have awarded over 80% tickets to the non-electable who have never been a part of any assembly,” said Imran while announcing party tickets for the youth on Monday.  “The PTI is making history today by allotting 35% of tickets to the youth. And this will, of course, make a ‘Naya Pakistan’,” he said.

Imran said his party would field 800 candidates across the country. Of them, over 600 are debutantes – and 35% are below the age of 40, he added.

He also appealed to the nation to contribute to the ‘Naya Pakistan Fund’ which has been set up to finance the election campaigns of young PTI candidates. “They [the youth] are the game-changers and want revolution through the ballot,” he said. He revealed that 250 candidates of his party have not enough resources to run their political campaigns.

“It was difficult to pick out 800 candidates from 6,000 applications,” he said. “Now, a new leadership can fix the state institutions. The nation will fight a decisive battle for a new system,” he added. The party has awarded around 80% of tickets on the recommendations of its district organisations.

“We had decided that tickets would not be awarded to the relatives of party leaders. I vetted the list [of aspirants] myself to rule out nepotism in the award of tickets,” he added. He said that ideological politics came to an end in Pakistan in 1985 – but the PTI wanted to revive it. “Now, Pakistanis want to rid themselves of the two traditional political parties, PML-N and PPP,” he said. The two parties had been partners in the Punjab government for three-and-a-half years while they had been partners in Balochistan till date.

“In fact, they are one on all issues. PML-N leaders have said on record that they helped the PPP-led government to complete its tenure. Now, the PML-N wants to take its turn. The nation will not allow them to play musical chairs,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2013.