SAHIWAL: Of the 12 provincial assembly seats in Pakpattan and Sahiwal districts, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has issued party tickets to 10 candidates, while candidates for three constituencies have yet to be announced.

Tickets were awarded to the youth who have been associated with the PTI chain and have remained committed even after the incidents on May 9.

In Pakpattan, PP-194, 195, and 197 tickets were awarded to Mahar Mooeeduddin Chishti, Salman Safder, and Muhammad Ahmed Watto. However, PP-193 and 196 tickets are still under consideration.

In district Sahiwal, PP-198, 200, 201, 202, 203, and 204 tickets have been awarded to Sajaad Nasir, Haroon Latif Mughal, Muhammad Yar Dhamra, Waheed Asghar Dogar, retired Maj Ghulam Sarwar, and Rai Muhammad Iqbal.

The party has not announced candidate for PP-199.

The party has reserved the seat for Rana Aftab, PTI Pakpattan district president, but his nomination papers were rejected due to being declared a bank defaulter.

Rao Umer Hashim has succeeded in securing NA-139 ticket, while the NA-140 ticket is still under consideration.

In district Sahiwal, ticket for NA-142 has yet to be announced, while Rana Amir Shahzad and Rai Murtaza Iqbal have secured tickets for NA-141 and NA-143.

Mr Shahzad obtained a PPP ticket in the 2018 election but later shifted his loyalties first to the PML-Q and then to the PTI.

The PPP has fielded Zaki Chaudhry for NA-141, and his nephew, Sarmad Choudhry for PP-199. Ghulam Farid Kathiya, PPP central executive member, will be a PPP candidate for NA-142, while there is no candidate for NA-143.

Muzzafar Shah Khagga, Asif Kathiya, Yousaf Kalasan, and Shahzad Saeed Cheema will be PPP candidates for PP-198, PP-200, PP-201 and PP-202, while there is no announcement for PP- 203 and PP-204 in Chichawatni.

The PML-N did not award tickets to former parliamentarians Pir Tariq Shah Khagga, Mian Naveed Ali and Hayat Manika in Pakpattan. It is reported that Ahmed Raza Manika, brother of Khawar Manika, brought his own team, including Farooq Manika and former MPA Chaudhry Javed Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024