LAHORE: The PML-N on Saturday awarded ticket to Ali Pervaiz Malik to contest election from NA-27 (Lahore) after disqualification of Maryam Nawaz who was to contest from the constituency.

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif awarded ticket for NA-127 to the party’s Lahore president Pervaiz Malik’s son Ali Pervaiz and the Khokhar brothers’ relative Irfan Shafi Khokhar for PP-173.

The party president has also requested the returning officers concerned to allot them PML-N symbol of lion.

Ali Pervaiz had filed nomination papers in NA-127 but had not withdrawn these.

Ali’s father is contesting from NA-133.

Earlier, Pervaiz Malik had left NA-127 from where he had won 2013 election with a margin of over 95,000 votes to accommodate Maryam who was not comfortable contesting from her family constituency of NA-125.

With Irfan Shafi getting the ticket, the Khokhars of Raiwind are now contesting from four constituencies from the PML-N platform.

Both brothers, Saiful Maluk Khokhar and Afzal Khokhar are contesting on NA-135 and NA-136, respectively, while their close relative Faisal Khokhar is in the run for a provincial assembly constituency.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2018