PESHAWAR: Keeping in view the commotion in Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf over allotment of tickets for contesting the upcoming polls, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has decided to release the list of its candidates after cogent review to avoid rift in the party.

In the prevailing circumstances, PML-N seems more careful in taking decisions and trying to finalise names of suitable aspirants to compete the opponent candidates. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the party has solid vote bank only in Hazara division or some constituencies in Malakand division. Its leadership is making efforts to bring some potential candidates into its fold but its actual position can be judged only during the elections.

In the past, PML-N faced many internal issues, however, with passing of time the many of the disgruntled workers were silenced by adjusting them on party offices and some of them said goodbye to the party. The weak organisational structure of the party can be judged from the fact that it has no spokesman at provincial level to be contacted by journalists on different issues.

Trying to contact aspirants ignored by other parties

However, the party is still the last ray of hope for many, especially for the political workers, who were associated with PPP and PTI but failed to get tickets for 2018 general elections. PML-N has already completed scrutiny of the applications of aspirants and also interviewed them about a week ago but it is yet to issue the list of candidates to media.

A senior PML-N leader said that the party had formed parliamentary board consisting of over 15 members but it seemed as if the board had already authorised PML-N provincial president Eng Amir Muqam to take the decisions, especially regarding the Pakhtun- dominated districts.

The party has so far officially announced candidates for six out of eight provincial assembly constituencies only in Swat. The source said that availability of suitable candidates to compete other parties was a difficult task.

Amir Muqam will contest the election from PK-2 Bahrain area, Sardar Khan from PK-3 Khwazakhela tehsil, Irshad Ali Khan from PK-5 Babuzai tehsil, Syed Habib Ali Shah from PK-6 Barikot tehsil, Azmat Ali Khan from PK-8 Matta tehsil and Abdullah Khan will contest elections from PK-9 constituency of the municipal committee area of Matta.

The PML-N leader said that the list was delayed to adjust some of the potential candidates in different constituencies. The provincial leadership of the party has offered PML-N central president Shahbaz Sharif to contest the polls from PK-4 constituency in Swat but he is yet to consider it seriously.

The source said that the party leadership had assigned duties to office-bearers to contact the people ignored by PTI, especially Arbab Najeebullah Khan, Advocate Iqbal Mohmand, Aurangzeb Khan, Irfanullah Shah, Arbab Usman, Yaseen Khalil and others.

PML-N provincial senior vice president Rashid Mehmood, when contacted, said that the list of candidates would be made public within a couple of days. He confirmed the reports about contacting the PTI workers, saying some of them had sought time for joining PML-N.

Mr Mehmood said that the party had selected its candidates in all the areas. He expressed the hope that PML-N would win maximum seats to form government in the province. He added that provincial spokesman for the party would be named soon.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2018