Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) is reportedly considering relatives of three heavyweights for allotment of tickets in upcoming by-polls in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) constituencies.

Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Pervez Khattak is said to have sought a ticket for his son Ibrahim Khattak and brother Liaqat Khattak.

Similarly, National Assembly speaker Asad Qaisar has reportedly been assured of a ticket for his brother Aqibullah Qaiser, while another parliamentarian Ali Amin Gandapur is all set to get his brother Faisal Amin a ticket to contest a by-election in KP Assembly. Faisal Amin has already relinquished his French citizenship for the purpose.

Peshawar-based analyst Haq Nawaz says that in the past, PTI chairman has repeatedly criticised other major political parties of the country for being under control of a handful of dynasties. He has also vowed to not let dynastic politics in his party, however, the party’s actions appear to be in contradition to the chairman’s statements on the issue.

Nawaz notes that if tickets are alloted to the relatives of party leaders, it will send out a message to workers of the party that family backgrounds matter more than adherence to party ideology.

“It will be a clear negation of PTI’s policy to end the trend of dynastic politics from the country,” he says.

The public opinion in the province seems to be divided over the issue. While many believe that walking the talk is a difficult task when it comes to upholding merit in party decisions, others insist that the PTI is still better than other parties because the party chairman’s own family is neither occupying any office in the party nor contesting elections on its tickets.

Muhammad Israr Khan, a student of civil engineering, says he cannot believe that the PTI senior leaders are using their influence in the party to get tickets for their relatives.

Muhammad Rashid, who owns a small cloth store in Dera Ismail Khan from where Ali Amin Gandapur intends to field his brother, says, “everyone wants a change but no one seems to be willing to begin by changing themselves.”

But Amin Shah, a student in Peshawar University, says that it would have been a question of dynastic politics had Imran Khan alloted tickets to his own relatives. “The PML-N has 36 members of Nawaz Sharif family in its government,” he says.

Muhammad Farhan, a college student in Haripur district, echoes the sentiment and says that the PTI chairman has not give any ticket to his family members. “The PML-N and PPP leaders award tickets first to their relatives and then to others. This is the difference between PTI and these parties,” he says.

Published in Daily Times, September 1^st 2018.