Daily Times

KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party leader Fauzia Kasuri filed her nomination papers for National Assembly Constituency NA-247 Karachi (previously NA-250).

If chosen as her party’s candidate, Kasuri is expected to contest against Dr Arif Alvi from her former party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Speaking to a private TV channel, Kasuri confirmed that she filed her nomination papers from NA-247. Kasuri maintained that the final decision on her nomination rested with the party’s high command.

“I have not been told to file nomination papers from any other constituency. I requested the leadership to nominate anyone else for the seat but they told me that my candidacy is in the best interest of the party,” said Fauzia Kasuri. PSP sources informed the media that the party had decided to field Fauzia Kasuri against Arif Alvi on NA-247. The decision was made by the party’s election committee at its headquarters in the Pakistan House.

Other notable candidates contesting on this constituency are MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar, JI’s Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, PPP’s Abdul Aziz Memon and independent candidate Jibran Nasir. There were also reports that PSP chief Mustafa Kamal would be contesting from NA-247. Kasuri parted ways with Imran Khan-led PTI after her 22 years of association on May, 2018. In her resignation letter, she stated that since 2013, she had become increasingly disenchanted by the direction the party had taken and no longer saw it as representative of aspiration of millions of undersized citizens seeking transformative change in Pakistan.

Published in Daily Times, June 15^th 2018.