GUJRAT: The disgruntled group comprising those who were denied the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ticket for different constituencies because of seat adjustment with the PML-Q in the district, is considering the option of fielding its own candidates under “Haqiqi PTI” banner.

Some of the ticket aspirants initially rejected by the party, including Afzal Gondal who was the party’s candidate for NA-69 in 2013 and secured some 40,000 votes and Tanveer Gondal (NA-68 and PP-29), have already announced they would contest the poll come what may.

One of the disgruntled leaders told Dawn that efforts were still underway to convince the party that it should field its own candidates. He, however, said that if the party did not agree to the suggestion, the group might field its own candidates in the district.

He added the group would be named “Haqiqi PTI” and its candidates would try to get a common election symbol so that the ideological workers of the party in the district could vote for them.

He said the idea to field independent candidates was floated at a recent meeting of the disgruntled group. However, most of the members were of the view that more efforts should be made to convince the party to field its own candidates in the district. In case of failure of such efforts, the group might go for fielding its independent candidates, he added.

Tanveer Gondal, who had applied for the PTI tickets for two constituencies, said he would now run for PP-29 as an independent candidate. He added that seat adjustment with Q league was not acceptable to the local party workers.

When reminded about the affidavit PTI had taken from the aspiring candidates with a pledge that they would not contest poll against any party candidate if denied the ticket, Gondal said he was not contesting against the party nominee since he was challenging the PML-N and Q candidates.

The PTI had withdrawn ticket from the Gujrat district president Ilyas Chaudhary from NA-71 (Sara-i-Alamgir-Kotla-Kharian city) and Zubair Ahmed Khan from PP-28 (Tanda), also removing their names from the list of party candidates.

Under the seat-adjustment formula, the PTI had kept two seats of Gujrat Tehsil -- NA-68 and NA-69-- open for the PML-Q’s Chaudhry Hussain Elahi and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, respectively. The party also fielded no candidate in PP-29 and PP-30. The PTI had nominated Zubair Tanda in PP-28 and Saleem Sarwar in PP-31 but the PML-Q announced its own candidate in PP-28.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018