LAHORE: PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday reviewed his previous decision and awarded party tickets to 31 fresh candidates for the upcoming elections to the Punjab Assembly.

Eight aspirants have been accommodated in the new list while decision to select one more is pending.

The decision to review the list came after several aspirants had lodged complaints against those picked and presented themselves as the most suited for the respective constituencies.

According to Mr Khan’s decision, the PP-118 party ticket for the Toba Tek Singh-I constituency, which was initially awarded to Bilal Asghar Warraich, has been withdrawn. The seat has been shown as “open” in the list of “updated candidates after review”.

PTI chief claims his life still under threat from people he has already named

Four constituencies — PP-124 (Jhang-I), PP-204 (Khanewal-II), PP-221 (Multan-XI) and PP-244 (Bahawalnagar-VIII) — have been kept “pending”.

Four candidates each have been accommodated on the pending decision seats in central Punjab and south Punjab region, while five ticket-holders have been replaced in north Punjab by awarding tickets to fresh entrants.

The aspirants, who got party tickets after the review, submitted their tickets with the Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday, replacing the already submitted tickets for respective constituencies.

April 26 was the last date for change of party tickets at the ECP.

The PTI chief’s review and change of candidates on 22 seats constitute only seven per cent of the total award of tickets to 292 candidates. Five seats are still “open” or the decision on them is “pending”.

It may be mentioned that Mr Khan had interviewed some 1,000 aspirants out of 1,500, who had submitted their nomination papers with the ECP.

Mr Khan has stated he would himself interview women candidates looking for nomination on the reserved seats. He said the criteria for selection would be loyalty towards the party and their capacity to contribute in the assembly.

Threat to life

Late on Wednesday night, the PTI chief in a series of tweets again claimed that his life was in danger.

The former prime minister pointed out that the interior minister said his [Imran Khan’s] life is under threat from foreign agencies. “Let me make it clear to entire country that the only threat to my life is from the 3 ppl I named after Wazirabad assassination attempt. Same 3, + 3 more I have identified in a video statement, tried to eliminate me on 18 March in ICT Judicial Complex,” read one of his tweets.

Mr Khan said that if any attempt is made now on his life, these same people will be responsible. “Just as they tried to pin the blame for Wazirabad attack on a religious extremist — a mere smokescreen — they are now trying to create another deception of foreign agencies,” he said.

The PTI chief said “they are petrified I will be elected back to power & hold them accountable, hence their efforts to assassinate me”.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023