SHANGLA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf organised a huge rally on Sunday in Aloch Puran after a long break to launch election campaign.

PTI candidate for NA-11 Haji Said Fareen Khan, candidate for PK-29 Haji Abdul Munim, Akhtar Ali Chatan and others addressed the rally. PTI leadership and candidates for different constituencies faced challenges like FIRs, arrest and imprisonment in cases related to May 9 riots and violation of Section 144 in the recent past.

On Sunday, Haji said Fareen, who joined PTI after quitting ANP in 2021, addressed the first public gathering as a candidate for NA-11. The rally was attended by PTI workers from Puran, Martung, Makhozi and Chakisar areas.

Addressing the rally, Haji Said Fareen said that he was going to contest the elections on PTI ticket but for the first time. He said that passion and devotion of PTI workers encouraged him and boasted his morale.

He said that their opponents had seen their defeat long ago due to which they hatched conspiracies. He said that with the support of Shangla people and PTI devoted workers, he would defeat Amir Muqam.

PTI candidate for PK-29 and former provincial minister Abdul Munim Khan said that despite taking away ‘bat’ symbol from them, people still loved PTI and they would take the revenge from their opponents through ballot on February 8.

“We had called a workers convention to launch election campaign but it turned into a big public gathering and workers showed their response to opponents and left a message to them that they stood by Imran Khan,” he said.

PTI provincial senior vice president and candidate for PK-28 Shaukat Yousafzai launched his election campaign in Kuz Kana area where several political activists joined PTI.

Also on the day, independent candidate for PK-28 Shaukat Khan announced to withdraw in support of PTI candidate Shaukat Yousafzai.

Earlier, independent candidate Adnan Aziz also returned his nomination papers in support of a PTI candidate.

Haji Said Fareen Khan has been allotted electoral symbol of ‘airplane’ and Shaukat Yousafzai has been given ‘squash racket’ as electoral symbol while the symbol of Abdul Munim is ‘pomegranate’ and Saddar Rehman has been given ‘wall clock’ as electoral symbol.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2024