PTI lawmaker Malik Shehzad Awan steps down after being sidelined for NA-249 ticket

• PTI's Malik Shehzad Awan submits his resignation to Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh.
• Awan says the PTI candidate for Karachi's NA-249, Amjad Khan Afridi, "is unpopular in the constituency".
• Adds that he has "to win this seat no matter what so [he could]gift it to Prime Minister Imran Khan".

KARACHI: PTI lawmaker Malik Shehzad Awan on Friday submitted his resignation after the ruling party snubbed him in giving ticket for the NA-249 constituency.

Awan, a PTI lawmaker in the Sindh Assembly, stepped down after submitting his resignation to Opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh.

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He said Amjad Khan Afridi — the ruling party's candidate for NA-249, which had fallen vacant after the previously-elected Faisal Vawda stepped down following his Senate victory — was "unpopular in the constituency".

"I have to win this seat no matter what so I can gift it to Prime Minister Imran Khan," Awan said. "That's why I've submitted my resignation."

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Vawda, also associated with the PTI, had won from Karachi's NA-249 constituency during the 2018 general election but stepped down after winning a seat during the Senate elections earlier this month.

According to the polling schedule for the NA-249 constituency, issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) earlier, voting would take place on April 29, 2021.