Political heavyweights from major parties in the run for the city’s 14 national and 30 provincial assembly seats on Friday submitted their party tickets to the returning officers of their respective constituencies.
Meanwhile, the PML-N on Friday issued a final list of names of its candidates on all 14 NA and 30 PP seats.
Among those who submitted their tickets were PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shahbaz, his niece Maryam Nawaz, PTI chairman Imran Khan, and the party’s central Punjab president Aleem Khan. Other contestants who submitted their party tickets were Mian Hamad Azhar, Mehar Wajid Azeem, Samina Ghurki, Khokhars of Samsani, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Ayaz Sadiq, Ijaz Chaudhry, Khwaja Saad Rafique, and Zaeem Qadri.
Several disgruntled leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) denied tickets by their parties on Friday held separate press conferences to register their protests.
Chaudhry Adnan, a new entrant in PML-N’s Lahore chapter, announced that he would contest the election in PP-154 as an independent candidate. The constituency falls under two national assembly constituencies — NA-127 and NA-128. Adnan said the Nawaz League leadership had promised the ticket for the seat to him but later the decision was taken in some other candidate’s favour.
In a separate press briefing, another estranged leaguer, former MPA Waheed Gull expressed anger over the party’s refusal to issue him a ticket for the election. He said that while he regreted that his party had failed to acknowledge his services, he would not follow in the footsteps of Zaeem Qadri and others contesting as independents against party candidates. “I am committed to the cause of democracy,” he said, adding that he bagged more than 43,000 votes in the last general elections but was still ignored.
Qadri also held a press briefing on Friday where he vowed to ‘continue his mission to give tough time to the PML-N’. Qadri is contesting the July 25 election from NA-133 as an independent candidate.
In the PTI camp, Shahdara-based leader Yasir Gilani and several workers from other city constituencies continued their protest in front of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s residence at Zaman Park. A separate protest was held against the award of PTI ticket to former Q League lawmaker Raja Basharat to contest election from a provincial assembly seat in Rawalpindi.
Speaking to the media in front of the ECP office, PTI leader Dr Zarqa claimed that more than 2,500 candidates who filed nomination papers were defaulters, while at least 250 were dual nationals. She said the affidavit filed with nomination papers had no effective value. She appealed the ECP to take action against defaulters and dual nationals.
Other estranged leaders who have spoken against parties’ decisions to deny them tickets in the past few days include Syed Hashmat Ali Shah of Shahdara. Shah had taken exception to the party’s decision to award the ticket to Samiullah Khan Durrani, husband of former MPA Azma Bukhari. Kulsoom Nawaz’s nephew Bilal Yasin’s candidature has also been opposed by several union council members and chairmen from the Nawaz League.
Other prominent names denied party tickets in the city are Rana Tajamal Hussain of Burki-Hadiyara; Chaudhry Akhtar Rasool, former hockey player, Majid Zahoor, Sohail Shoukat Butt, Chaudhry Gulzar Ahmad, and Mian Mohsin Latif, another nephew of Begum Kalsoom.
PML-N’s final list in Lahore:
According to the updated list made available by a party source on Friday, the PML-N has fielded Malik Riaz on NA-123; Hamza Shehbaz on NA-124; Waheed Alam Khan on NA125; Maher Ishtiaq Ahmed on NA126; Maryam Nawaz Sharif on NA127; Sheikh Rohail Asghar on NA128; Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on NA129; Khawaja Ahmed Hassan on NA130; Khawaja Saad Rafique on NA131; Mian Shehbaz Sharif on NA132; Muhammad Parvaiz Malik on NA133; Rana Mubashar Iqbal on NA134; Saif ul Malook Khokhar on NA135; and Muhammad Afzal Khokhar on NA136.
The complete list of PP candidates is:
PP144: Samiullah Khan; PP145: Ghazali Saleem Butt; PP146: Hamza Shehbaz; PP147: Mian Mujtaba; PP148: Ch. Shehbaz; PP149: Mian Marghoob; PP150: Bilal Yaseen; PP151: Ch. Baqir Hussain; PP152: Rana Mashhood; PP153: Kh. Imran Nazir; PP154: Bao Akhtar; PP155: Malik Ghulam Habib; PP156: Malik Waheed; PP157: Kh. Salman Rafique; PP158: Ahsan Sharafat; PP159: Hafiz Mian Nouman; PP160: Tauseef Shah; PP161: Faisal Khokhar; PP162: Yasin Sohal; PP163: Mian Naseer; PP164: Shehbaz Sharif; PP165: Shehbaz Sharif; PP166: Ramzan Bhatti; PP167: Mian Saleem; PP168: Kh. Saad Rafique; PP169: Akhtar Badshah; PP170: Mian Imran; PP171: Sardar Adil Omer; PP172: Mirza Javaid; and PP173: Maryam Nawaz.
Published in Daily Times, June 30th 2018.
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