CHAKWAL: After being denied ticket for NA-60 by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), former MNA and renowned columnist Ayaz Amir and his supporters on Tuesday asked the party high command to revise the decision.

The PML-N has given the ticket to Major (retired) Tahir Iqbal, a nephew of party stalwart Lt-Gen (retired) Abdul Majeed Malik.

Ayaz Amir organised a convention of his supporters at a local hotel which was attended by about two thousand notables from across the constituency on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on the occasion, Ayaz Amir said he and his supporters did not quit the party but were expelled from their house. “I got realised about the party’s decision regarding the ticket much earlier but could not speak due to certain reasons,” he said. “If the party high command wanted to give the ticket to a former minister of Musharraf regime it could award a ticket to Musharraf himself.”

He said their leaders even did not care about Ejazul Haq, a son of their godfather, as he was also denied a ticket. “Ideologically, I’m not a member of the PML-N but despite this I have tried my best to be loyal to the party,” he told the gathering.

He said he had learnt a lot after resigning as an MPA of the party in 1997. “My leaders kept on clapping in Jeddah after reading my articles I used to write against Musharraf but now they get angry over my articles. However, I will keep on writing the truth,” he resolved.

“I have sacrificed my profession of journalism by leaving a major media group just because I wanted to strengthen the PML-N in Chakwal,” he recalled. “I have never been a member of the PML-N ideologically and was in the search of an opportunity to trace a way out of it. But I always succumbed to the wishes of thousands of my supporters.”

He said he would announce his future course of action within a few days after consulting his friends.

PML-N senior leader and former district president Advocate Ziaul Hassan Zaidi asked the party leadership to revise its decision. “The party should immediately give the ticket to Ayaz Amir,” he added.

Source told Dawn that PTI high command was trying to contact Ayaz Amir.