Election tickets Distribution, Create Division within PTI

Before descending into the electoral battle, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf may lose a large number of its die-hard workers.

Favoritism and hereditary politics are the root causes of this, despite the PTI leadership claiming not to believe in them. But the situation on the ground is very different.

In Faisalabad, the issue of awarding party tickets to candidates left many PTI supporters and workers annoyed.

They complain that the party is giving priority to some favorites and even giving tickets to sons of disqualified politicians.

Workers claim that people joining from other parties have dominated PTI and overtaken the original workers.

“Senior PTI activists are angry at being ignored by the party, which is rewarding an influential family,” a local PTI leader told Media

“The family joined PTI just a few days back but grabbed three tickets in a single swoop,” he said.

The same situation was witnessed in Gujranwala where PTI is gearing up to face off against the PML-N in the general elections, but party workers are unhappy over distribution of party tickets.

PTI has awarded tickets to its district president Ahmed Chatha, son of former National Assembly speaker Hamid Nasir Chatha, for the NA-79 and PP-52 seats.

Former minister Rana Nazeer and his son have been awarded tickets for National Assembly seat NA-83 and Punjab Assembly seat PP-63 respectively.

Former PML-N MNA Mian Tariq Mahmood, who has recently joined the PTI, acquired the PTI ticket for NA-80 and another ticket for his sister-in-law.

Workers are questioning these decisions.

Senior PTI workers in Karachi are angry ahead of the challenging election campaign in MQM’s political stronghold.

The party leadership’s tilt towards some favorites and newcomers has pushed seniors to the wall.

Reports say many seniors leaders who secured a good number of votes in the 2013 election are contemplating solo flights in upcoming election.

Subhan Ali Sahil, Zubair Khan and Ashraf Qureshi, who got more than 60,000 votes in last election, are among those who intend to contest as independent candidates.

Many workers are angry at their own leaders. This has widened the gulf within the ranks of the party that is battling internal rifts.