ISLAMABAD: Unhappy with the results of cantonment boards’ elections and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government polls, the newly appointed caretaker set-up of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has started homework for LG polls in Punjab and Sindh.

A meeting of the party’s leaders from all provinces on Monday decided to constitute district-level executive councils for fair distribution of party tickets for the upcoming LG elections in Sindh and Punjab, and other organisational affairs, including intra-party elections.

PTI’s central organiser Shah Mehmood Qureshi chaired the meeting.

Also read: Internal rift, nepotism cost PTI dearly in LG elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan is expected to hold the LG polls in the two provinces in September.

The PTI’s chief organiser in Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, told Dawn: “The meeting was held to discuss ways and means to ensure distribution of party tickets for LG elections in Punjab and Sindh purely on the basis of merit.”

Selection of thousands of candidates on the basis of their performance was a challenge, he said and admitted that the party had made a mistake by distributing only 200 tickets for the cantonment boards’ elections.

District-level executive councils to be set up for fair distribution of party tickets

Replying a question about poor showing of the party in some districts of KP, party Chairman Imran Khan had said at a press conference on Sunday that he had directed the party’s organiser in the province, Fazal Mohammad, to submit a report in one month whether the process of distribution of tickets had been fair.

Mr Sarwar said he would try to ensure that only genuine workers of the party were awarded tickets.

Others who attended the meeting included additional central organiser of the party, Saifullah Khan Niazi, Fazal Mohammad and Balochistan organiser Humayun Jogezai. PTI MNA Dr Arif Alvi, who has been given the responsibility of organising the party in Sindh, did not attend the meeting. Therefore, issues related to his province could not be taken up.

According to an insider, the meeting was primarily convened to keep Mr Qureshi and Mr Sarwar on one page since they have been assigned the task of organising the party in almost equal number of divisions in Punjab. “The PTI does not want to take any risk in Punjab because results of LG polls in the province will determine its future in the country,” he said.

Mr Qureshi has the responsibility to organise the party in Multan, Sahiwal, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur divisions whereas Mr Sarwar looks after Faisalabad, Lahore, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi divisions.

NADRA REPORT: Meanwhile, a tug of war continues between the PTI and the PML-N over Imran Khan’s petition against the election of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq from NA-122 in the 2013 general elections.

On Monday, Mr Khan again accused the government of putting pressure on the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to get a result of its liking.

In a supplementary report, Nadra has explained some of the facts on its earlier forensic report on polling in the constituency, which reportedly supports Mr Sadiq’s stance.

Talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court, the PTI leader claimed that the Nadra chairman’s unannounced foreign visit at a time when the election tribunal was hearing the case indicated how he was being pressurised by the government.

He challenged the rationale behind Nadra’s submitting a supplementary report to the tribunal.

Reacting to Mr Khan’s remarks, a spokesperson for Nadra asked him to avoid passing “insulting remarks” against the authority’s chairman. He said Nadra had submitted the supplementary report on the request of lawyers representing the two sides in the tribunal.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2015

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