K & P

Safe bet?: PTI pits new faces for Senate polls

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

Manzoor Ali February 13, 2015

Speaking to the media on Friday, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said he himself supervised the nomination process. STOCK IMAGE

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.

COMMENTS (3)

Dr. Shahrukh | 9 years ago | Reply @Zain: Mother is from Chitral. She herself is Nawabzada Salauddin of Tanawals sister. Her husband is very crooked. She is also a close relative of CM KPK Pervaiz Khattak and his sister-in-law Nafisa Khattak. Pervaiz Khattak has hijacked the PTI and Imran Khan is just a figure head. He is effectively in control of the PTI and is minting money while Imran is turning a blind eye. I was at all the meetings. No candidate was picked on merit, only people who the CM KPK favored. And in case anyone has any doubt, Pervaiz Khattaks son-in-law Adnan Khan was up until now a PPP Senator and has reapplied for a Senate seat as an independent and his father-in-law in my presence told him he has the necessary votes and would give him the cash to buy more. Because of Khattak we missed the opportunity to give the ticket to an icon who Imran Khan himself asked to apply. Instead he has inducted his niece, sister-in-law, cousin, late wifes cousin and his buddies. Imran should just give him the chairmanship because the PTI is effectively being run by Pervaiz Khattak.

roarwali | 9 years ago | Reply @Zain: Party does not give ticket to anyone who is only competent. What if the competent person has an affiliation with PMLN (which i think would be hard to find)? Competency and sacrifices for the party should be the criteria for selection, among many others.

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