LAHORE, March 25: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hopefuls for party tickets with dual nationality are in a quandary, as they are ready to surrender their American nationality, but the US Consulate refused to issue them clearance certificates.

Syed Anwar Hasnat, dual national and hopeful for the PP-27 (Pind Dadan Khan, Jhelum) ticket, was quite upset when he returned from the US Consulate in Lahore on Monday. He said he surrendered his American passport, but the consulate did not issue him a clearance certificate.

US Embassy deputy spokesperson Matt Boland said issuing clearance certificates to those surrendering the US nationality was a process. “It takes time,” he added.

PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry, who is heading party’s parliamentary board and short-listing candidates for party tickets, told Dawn that the parliamentary board could consider such candidates if the court of law considers their application to surrender the dual nationality as valid.

It is learnt that around 100 PTI candidates want to surrender their foreign nationalities to contest the general election in Pakistan.

TICKETS: The PTI Punjab Parliamentary Board continued scrutinising candidates for provincial and national assembly seats in Punjab.

PTI Lahore District Parliamentary Board headed by Abdul Aleem Khan interviewed 238 candidates for 25 Punjab Assembly seats and 84 candidates for 13 National Assembly seats in Lahore.