Safe bet?: PTI pits new faces for Senate polls

Merit has been the only criteria for selection, says Imran Khan.

PESHAWAR:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced its candidates from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) for the upcoming Upper House elections.

Speaking to the media on Friday, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said he himself supervised the nomination process and said merit has been the only criteria for selection.

According to a statement issued by the party, PTI Central Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari said the party’s parliamentary board met with Khan in the chair in Islamabad on Thursday evening. She said the final candidates, out of 131 applicants, were filtered on two principles—the candidate must belong to K-P and have no close relation with any of the party’s lawmakers.

The party has nominated Mohsin Aziz, Syed Shibli Faraz, Fazal Mohammad Khan and Barrister Salman Afridi for the general seats. Aziz is a prominent industrialist who served as provincial minister for industries in 2002. He has also headed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association. Shibli, who joined PTI in December 2011, is the son of renowned poet Ahmed Faraz. Fazal is the son of prominent politician Nisar Muhammad Khan and was earlier associated with Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. Afridi is the party’s legal affairs central secretary.

On the other hand, Nauman Wazir has been selected to run for the technocrat seat and Latif Yousafzai has been selected as his covering candidate. Wazir is also an industrialist who hails from Nowshera and Yousafzai is currently serving as the K-P advocate general.

PTI has also nominated Samina Abid and Rabia Basri for women seats from K-P. Abid is a new entrant in the party’s ranks and has been chosen over several potential candidates. Basri is currently serving as PTI Peshawar women’s wing president.

The party’s minority seat candidates are Brigadier (retd) John Kenneth Williams and Ravi Kumar. The former’s nomination has not gone down well with party activists who gathered outside Peshawar Press Club to protest against the decision on Friday.

The nominations have come as a surprise for many of PTI’s bigwigs from the province as the party has invested in relatively unknown candidates. Williams is the great grandson of Dr John Williams, who set up Christian Hospital Tank in 1868.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.