SIALKOT: The PTI’s disgruntled local leaders who were not awarded party tickets have announced to contest the general election as the independent candidates against the PTI in Sialkot and their retaliatory move is likely to benefit the PML-N which will take political advantage of the situation.

The PTI dissidents have started harming the PTI vote bank in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur in retaliation to, what they term, the unfair distribution of the party tickets in the district by the party leadership.

The PTI top leadership ignored Umer Farooq Mayer, the PTI’s old guard and one of its pioneers in Sialkot, and awarded a ticket to the PML-N’s dissident Chaudhry Ikhlaq Ahmed in PP-36 where he was a PTI candidate in the last election.

Mr Mayer termed the move a great injustice to him by the top PTI leadership and submitted his nomination papers for NA-72 as an independent candidate against PTI’s Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan. He also submitted his nomination papers in NA-73 against the PTI’s Usman Dar besides submitting papers from provincial assembly’s constituency, PP-37, against PTI Mehar Ashiq Hussain.

Talking to the newsmen on Tuesday, Mr Mayer said the PTI leadership had neglected his lifelong political services to the party as a loyal party worker. He said he had raised his voice against this great ‘injustice’ by the PTI leadership which preferred to award tickets to the dissidents of other parties instead of the PTI workers. He said contesting the polls as an independent candidate was his basic right.

The PTI Sialkot’s another disgruntled leader Mian Naeem Javaid, the former district nazim and ex-president of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), has also submitted his nomination papers in NA-72 (Sialkot-I) and NA-73 (Sialkot-II) and one Punjab Assembly constituency (PP-37) with an aim to go against the PTI candidates as an independent candidate.

Both these leaders of the PTI are giving a tough time to PTI candidates Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Usman Dar and Mehar Ashiq in these constituencies and this paving the way for the PML-N to get the full advantages of the situation arising from the political differences within the PTI after the award of the party tickets.

In Sambrial tehsil, the Ghuman family was also facing very strong criticism by the local disgruntled PTI candidates and workers as the family has got party tickets for the tehsil’s both national and provincial assembly seats. The PTI leadership has awarded a party ticket to retired Brig Muhammad Aslam Ghuman in Sambrial’s NA-76 (Sialkot-V). He is former director general of Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). The PTI leadership has also awarded a ticket to Aslam’s younger brother Muhammad Azeem Noori Ghuman, , a former PML-Q MPA, for PP-44.

The local PTI leaders from Sambrial, including Salman Saif Cheema, have announced contesting the polls as independent candidates against the Ghuman brothers.

In Pasrur, the local disgruntled PTI leader, Asif Bajwa, the former Olympian, has also submitted his nomination papers for NA-74 as an independent candidate against the PTI’s Barrister Mansur Sarwar Khan.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2018