RAWALPINDI: Though the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had changed its candidate in NA-55 on Thursday, confusion remained throughout Friday as supporters of both candidates ran their campaigns.

The nomination papers of the initial PPP candidate, Chaudhry Iftikhar, had been rejected by the appellate tribunal on Wednesday, when Amir Yaqoob raised objection concerning the details of his travel expenditures to USA three years ago.

The PPP then decided to issue the party ticket to Ammar Mehdi, who submitted the party letter to the Returning Officer (RO) on Thursday afternoon, fearing Chaudhry Iftikhar would be unable to contest the elections.

Meanwhile, Iftikhar managed to approach the Lahore High Court which allowed him to contest the elections after scrutinising the details of his expenditure. With this latest development, the PPP again awarded the party ticket to Iftikhar on Thursday night, and a letter was submitted to the RO on Friday evening along with a covering letter of the secretary general.

The letter requested the RO to cancel the previous letter issued to Ammar Mehdi.

“The party gave the ticket for NA-55 to Chaudhry Iftikhar yesterday night and canceled the earlier letter,” said Aamir Fida Paracha, PPP City President, while talking to Dawn.

He said the nomination papers had been rejected by the appellate tribunal and Ammar Mehdi had been issued the party ticket in absence of a PPP candidate in NA-55.

“Chaudhry Iftikhar has been asked by the party to launch his campaign and the party organisation is arranging public meetings for its candidates in the garrison city,” he said.

Chaudhry Iftikhar, referring to the rejection by the tribunal, said, “I presented the details to LHC full bench on Thursday which allowed me to contest the elections,” adding that his campaign had already started with the help of senior leaders of the party.

On the other hand, workers of Ammar Mehdi continued his door-to-door campaign in the city without knowledge of the change in the party’s decision.

“We distributed 100kg of sweet among the people after Friday prayers,” said Raja Israr Ahmed, a supporter of Ammar Mehdi, while talking to Dawn.

He said a corner meeting had been arranged for Ammar Mehdi in Chittian Hattian on Friday night, and the workers had been busy all day convincing people to attend it.

However, in the evening, the information was relayed to the people that Ammar Mehdi would not appear.

Another supporter of Ammar Mehdi at Purana Qila, Kamran Butt, said he and the other supporters had run the election campaign all day, adding that the candidate had visited the area on Friday morning.

When informed about the party’s decision, Mr. Butt was unaware of it and said the party organisation should have informed the workers about the change.