LAHORE: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif on Saturday awarded NA-66 (Wazirabad) by-poll ticket to Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar’s brother Bilal Farooq Tarar, ignoring the party candidate who had secured over 100,000 votes in the constituency in the last election.

Opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s 12 lawmakers were disqualified in Punjab by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) following their conviction in the May 9 (2023) cases. The disqualified lawmakers hailed from eight National Assembly and four Punjab Assembly constituencies.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has so far issued the election schedule for NA-66, NA-129 (Lahore) and PP-87 (Mianwali), with voting scheduled for Sept 18.

The NA-66 and PP-87 seats fell vacant after disqualification of PTI MNA Ahmed Chattha, son of veteran politician Hamid Nasir Chatha, and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Ahmed Khan Bhachar, respectively.

The NA-129, Lahore, fell vacant on the death of MNA and former Punjab governor Mian Azhar.

“Nawaz Sharif ignored Nisar Ahmed Cheema who not only won this seat in 2018 election but also secured over 100,000 votes against Chatha’s 160,000 in 2024 to oblige information minister’s brother,” a party insider told Dawn.

He said there could be two reasons behind the award of NA-66 ticket to the Tarar family -- one that the minister, who is very close to the powers that be, had requested the leadership to seriously consider his brother for the seat. The other is Mr Cheema who is a brother of a retired judge, had once claimed in a party gathering that he had also got an offer to secure victory through Form-47 but he declined. “This was leaked to the party leadership which got annoyed,” the insider said.

Atta Tarar thanked the party leadership for awarding the ticket to his brother saying “we are thankful to our leaders Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. ”

For NA-129, the elder Sharif is yet to finalise party candidate. The party insider believes that there has been a match between Mian Hafiz Nauman and Rana Mashhood. Nauman and Mashhood are reportedly close to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and PM Shehbaz’s son Hamza Shehbaz.

On the other hand, the PTI is giving it a second thought to contest the by-poll. For NA-129, Mian Azhar’s son Hammad Azhar is likely to be party’s candidate.

“Though PTI patron-in-chief Imran Khan has barred the party from contesting the by-poll, some leaders are of the view that the PML-N government should not be given an open field to grab these seats,” a PTI leader told Dawn.

He said Mr Khan would be conveyed the sentiment within the party and it was likely that he might change his mind.

Earlier, Mr Khan had said the PTI would not field candidates to show solidarity with disqualified members who stood firm with the party despite extreme challenges. “The party will completely boycott the vote,” Imran Khan had said in a recent tweet.

When asked about PTI’s possible boycott, PML-N Punjab President and PM’s adviser Rana Sanaullah told Dawn tha the PML-N had information that the Khan’s party was not boycotting the by-poll.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2025