PESHAWAR: Some PTI women activists have accused the party’s provincial leaders of naming their female relatives as election candidates by ignoring old guards and said they would raise voice against the ‘injustice’ at all available forums.

Former MPA Zareen Zia told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the women activists, who had served the party for a long time, couldn’t flatter leaders Pervez Khattak, Ali Ameen Gandapur and Shah Farman to bag election tickets. Accompanied by women party workers, she however said award of tickets in violation of the party’s ideology was an unjust act towards the genuine workers.

Ms Zareen said 29 women had applied for tickets in southern districts but none of them was considered by the party’s parliamentary board.

Allege leaders got relatives nominated for elections

She said ironically, the priority list made by the board had three Peshawar women, who were quite unknown to workers.

The former MPA said an NGO worker had been named in Hazara division, while one party ticket was given away to a woman in Nowshera, who was the wife of a driver.

She claimed that party leaders Shah Farman, Pervez Khattak and Mohammad Atif eyed the chief minister’s office and therefore, they’d got tickets for their favourite people to brighten their chances to become the province’s next chief executive.

Ms Zareen said loyalists were confused about who to approach for justice in that respect as party chief Imran Khan didn’t give them time to know about their grievances and ‘factual position’ about election nominations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We went to Banigala to meet Imran Khan seeking a probe into the unfair distribution of tickets but he didn’t meet us despite several requests,” she said.

The former lawmaker claimed that she had undeniable evidence of the violation of the PTI ideology and injustices during election nominations.

She said Ali Ameen Gandapur had compromised the rights of the party’s women activists in southern districts.

Ms Zareen also alleged exploitation of women workers in Swabi and Mansehra and demanded Imran Khan’s intervention to protect the party’s interests in the province.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2018