LOWER DIR: Federal Defence Minister and provincial president of ruling PTI Pervez Khattak said here on Monday that grouping in the party would never be tolerated and all the tickets for local bodies’ polls would be awarded on merit.

He was addressing a workers convention in Timergara as chief guest. PTI lawmakers including MNAs Bashir Khan, Syed Mehboob Shah, Sahibzada Sibghatullah and Junaid Khan and MPAs Malik Shafiullah Khan, Azam Khan, Liaquat Khan, Humayun Khan and Shakil Khan besides party workers from all parts of the district attended the convention.

Mr Khattak said that he had never accepted any party position during his political career as satisfying party workers was a hard task. He said that PTI chairman asked him to lead the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a difficult situation, so he accepted the challenge.

The minister said that PTI got 1.2 million votes in 2013 but its votes reached 2.5 million in 2018. He said that the party emerged victorious throughout the country in 2018 due to efforts of its workers and important role of overseas Pakistanis.

Defence minister says tickets for LG polls to be awarded on merit

He warned party workers of strict disciplinary action in case of grouping. He said that those workers, who wanted to form their own groups, should part their ways with PTI.

The minister said that party tickets for the upcoming local bodies’ polls would be awarded to those candidates, who could win the elections easily. He said that workers were real asset of the party and he would try not to disappoint them. He asked workers to get united and shun their differences for the sake of the party and its future.

He said that PTI would again emerge victorious with a sweeping majority both in Lower and Upper Dir. He said that lawmakers were asked to support the candidates. He said that there would be no nepotism and favouritism in award of party tickets for the second phase of local government elections.

Meanwhile, one of the senior PTI workers requesting not to be named told Dawn that they would follow the ‘see and wait’ policy. He said that ideological workers would wait for decisions, not speeches.

The activist said that they would support the party candidates if tickets were awarded on merit. He said that ideological workers had reservations over the parliamentary boards as most of the lawmakers were its members, who would try to award tickets to their near and dear ones.

He said that ideological workers were struggling to save the party. He said that they would field independent candidates if tickets were not awarded on merit.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2022