LAHORE, Feb 27: Unity Group’s Abdul Aleem Khan was elected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Lahore district president defeating Ideology Group’s Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and Tsunami Change Movement’s Farooq Amjad Mir with a big margin.The second phase intra-party elections were held on Tuesday.

Unity Group’s Abdur Rasheed Bhatti was elected PTI Lahore district general secretary defeating Ideology Group’s Hafiz Farhat Abbas and Tsunami Change Movement’s Yusuf Khan. Barrister Hammad Azhar, who had left the Unity Group at the eleventh hour, lost the election.

The Unity Group claimed in a news release that it had clean swept the PTI Lahore district intra-party polls. It said Unity’s candidates – Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema, Shoaib Siddiqui, Mian Hamid Meraj, Nazir Chohan, Farrukh Javed Moon and other office bearers had also won many seats of district as well as in 10 towns of Lahore.

PTI Punjab intra-party election commissioner Shadab H Jafri said the PTI leadership had stopped him from declaring the results of few seats officially and asked to do so after completing counting of votes on all seats. He said the commission had completed counting on president and general secretary seats at district as well as towns/tehsils level. He confirmed that Abdul Aleem Khan and Abdur Rasheed Bhatti had been elected Lahore district president and general secretary. He, however, said the claims about winning of candidates other than president and general secretary at district and tehsil levels were just claims.

Mr Jafri said the counting for the results of other seats in Lahore had started late on Wednesday. He said counting in many districts had been completed because the number of voters was far less than in Lahore.

He said the Punjab election commission had re-scheduled election in Rawalpindi, Gujrat and Sheikhupura for Thursday (today) and in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Sialkot for Friday (tomorrow).

The Unity Group celebrated its win and arranged a warm reception at PTI Upper Mall office.

President-elect Aleem Khan said the intra-party elections would strengthen party. He said that he would visit the residences of defeated candidates and offer them full cooperation for working together in the larger interest of the party. “Now, no one is new or old in the party and everyone should be united to achieve party chief Imran Khan’s vision of bringing change in the country.

KASUR: Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri’s group claimed victory in PTI intra-party elections in Kasur district. The Kasuri Group has defeated Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali group.

At a news conference at Lahore Press Club, Mr Kasuri said that his group had produced best results in Pakistan in the district as well as in four tehsils.

Mr Kasuri, who was flanked by district and tehsils’ elected presidents and general secretaries, said Kasur district election commissioner advocate Liaquat Ali Nagra had declared the election results that showed all 30 party seats at district level and 72 seats at tehsil level were won by Kasuri group. “Kasuri Group’s win is no surprise because it had registered 200,000 PTI members out of total 234,456 members in Kasur,” he said.

According to official results, Mr Kasuri said, Nadeem Haroon Khan had been elected Kasur district president and Rana Nadeem Aslam district general secretary.At tehsils level, he said, Syed Muzzaffer Hassan Kazmi and Zubair Khan had been elected Kasur tehsil president and general secretary.

Syed Fida Hussain Shah and Shukar Bari have been elected as president and general secretary in Pattoki tehsil; Muhammad Asim Dogar and Rana Muhammad Iqbal have been elected as president and general secretary in Chunian tehsil. In Kot Radha Kishan tehsil, Mahmood Joya and Rao Ali Afser were elected unopposed president and general secretary.