May 26, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1429

MARDAN, May 25: Leader Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Haji Yaqub Khan has revolted against party decision and has decided to contest by-election from NA-11 as an independent candidate after being denied ticket.

Talking to Dawn here on Sunday, the former state minister said that he had applied for the party ticket and had also filed nomination papers as an independent candidate from his home constituency NA-11 (Mardan 3).The seat fell vacant after Abdul Akbar Khan, who had won both NA-11 and PF-29 on PPP ticket, retained the provincial assembly seat.

Some nine activists of PPP including Khanzada Khan and Haji Yaqub Khan applied for the ticket but party awarded ticket to the former while papers of eight candidates were rejected in a meeting of the PPP Central Committee recently.

Yaqub Khan claimed that he was denied party ticket but workers of the constituency wanted him to be a candidate of the party. He claimed that he was a diehard and senior worker of the PPP, who in 1990 had won the seat on the party ticket and hoped that he would win the seat this time as well.

He claimed that he was popular in the constituency due to his personal relations and commitment to the cause of the PPP.