Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Shahbaz Gill said on Friday that the senior party leaders including him and Fawad Chaudhry and Hammad Azhar were not issued party tickets for elections in Punjab. Dr. Shahbaz Gill took to Twitter to announce that he, along with Fawad Chaudhary, Hamad Azhar, and other senior members, had submitted the papers for the Provincial Assembly. He said that party chairman Imran Khan has made the decision to not grant tickets to him and other senior party leader, adding that he wholeheartedly accepts former prime minister’s decision. The PTI leader stated that his support for Mr Khan was not based on seeking a position or ticket, but rather on ideological grounds. Meanwhile, Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, and Shahbaz Gill have expressed their confidence in party chief Imran Khan despite not being awarded party tickets for contesting the Punjab elections, it emerged on Friday. According to the list of candidates published on the PTI’s website, Raja Basharat, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Usmar Dar, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Hashim Dogar, Zain Qureshi and Usman Buzdar have been awarded party tickets. However, several senior party leaders were excluded from contesting the polls in Punjab.

Commenting on the development, Azhar – former energy minister – said: A few days ago, Khan sahab told me that he had thought at length and that the country’s biggest challenge was on the economic front, therefore, I was needed in the Centre. “The next day I withdrew my nomination papers from all the provincial constituencies,” he said. Gill, meanwhile, said that several senior party leaders, including Fawad and Azhar, had submitted their nomination papers for the polls in Punjab. “Chairman Imran Khan has decided not to give tickets to all of us,” he said. “Khan sahab’s decision is accepted wholeheartedly.” He said that he was not with the PTI chief for party tickets or for any position, but rather for the latter’s ideology.