KOHAT: It is going to be tough for the candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to run their election campaign here after denial of tickets to the nominees of the district cabinet and workers which has drawn severe criticism with signals from strong party members to quit the party in protest and contest in independent capacity.

Talking to this correspondent on phone on Sunday, PTI district president Aftab Alam quoted former MNA Shehryar Khan Afridi as saying that he had bowed before the ticket awarding board and Pervez Khattak not to harm the party’s interests and give tickets to the nominees of the party cabinet, but they had no regard for the future of PTI in KP.

The workers have alleged that Mr Khattak only wanted his lobbyists who could steer him again to the lucrative slot of chief minister.

District president hints at leaving party in protest against giving ticket to newcomer

Mr Alam also hinted at leaving the party in protest against award of ticket in his constituency of PK-80 to a newcomer because he was under pressure from the party workers to contest as an independent candidate otherwise they would also quit and vote for Shaukat Habib of MMA or Amjid Afridi.

“The lobbyists finalised giving ticket to Waleed Zafar against me. I was told that he has been awarded ticket on the basis of survey. I challenge them to conduct a transparent survey and if he got more votes or the elders and workers of the area even recognised him I will be ready for any punishment,” said Mr Alam while rejecting the survey.

He said that former law minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi had also been awarded the poll ticket again while his popularity graph had come down significantly during last five years. He claimed that the ticket awarding committee was influenced by former chief minister Pervez Khattak, who was adamant to field him.

He said that little time was left for the committee and Imran Khan to remove the workers’ grievances as he was leaving for Saudi Arabia on Monday (today) to perform Umrah.

Mr Alam said that in unusual move the party also ignored retired Lt-Gen Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah and fielded ex-MPA Ziaullah Bangash from PK-82 again.

Meanwhile, the ex-general announced on Sunday to contest the coming elections from NA-32 and PK-82 as an independent candidate.

CNG KITS: The distrcit administration has asked the transporters and drivers to get CNG kits of their vehicles tested from HDIP station, asking traffic police to enforce the relevant laws to stop incidents of fire.

An important meeting was held about the safety of passengers and vehicles run on CNG to stop incidents like the one happened the other day on the Indus Highway in which five people lost their lives and seven received serious burn injuries.

A handout issued here said that additional deputy commissioner Sahibzada Najeeb presided over a meeting of Regional Transport Authority, transporters, TMA and motor vehicle examiner at the camp office of the deputy commissioner.

He said that transporters should adhere to the CNG safety rules to avoid fatal incidents. He also asked the traffic police to enforce the rules by checking fresh test reports of the kits.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2018