Infighting over tickets mars PTI's election campaign

• Aleema Khan says Imran Khan personally approved all candidates.
• However, Khan has distanced himself from ticket allocations.
• PTI members are unsatisfied with distribution; some call it unfair.

ISLAMABAD/LONDON: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is facing serious infighting — including allegations of nepotism and financial corruption — after the distribution of the party tickets for the national and provincial assembly constituencies in connection with the February 8 general elections as fears grow that the lawyers running the party will further run it into the ground.

At least three senior PTI leaders — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said that Khan's spokesperson Umair Niazi and his sister, Aleema Khan, made decisions about the distribution of tickets.

They said that all major decisions were taken by Niazi and Aleema while the former first lady Bushra Bibi, who has regularly been meeting Khan in Adiala Jail, didn't have any say in the distribution of tickets.

Trusted sources within the PTI have revealed that many senior leaders from Punjab and KP were completely ignored in allotting tickets to the candidates.

Those who were ignored and bypassed include none other than senior party stalwarts Omar Ayub Khan, Hammad Azhar, Rai Hassan, Kanwal Shauzeb, and several others.

Khan's sister Aleema, who has been meeting her brother in jail regularly, rejected the allegations made against Niazi by the PTI leaders. She told The News: “Umair Niazi was point person for Punjab and Gohar Ali Khan for KP, Baluchistan and Sindh.”

Aleema said: “Umair Niazi is Imran Khan's point person. He is the one who is responsible for taking lists to Imran Khan for his decision. And we, Imran Khan's family, are witness to many of his decisions.”

“Imran khan has also marked with candidate lists with approval or comments. So the people who are making these allegations are basically challenging Imran Khan's selection. One does not have to think very hard to understand why they would do that?”

Aleema said that Niazi and PTI leader Gohar Khan are the two people Khan has trusted with external communication.

“Therefore we trust them too. Still we do make sure that his guidelines are followed. We will protect him with our life and not let anyone take advantage of his limited communication with the outside world.”

Veteran PTI leaders said it's a “tragedy” that the PTI has been handed over to some “opportunistic and over-ambitious lawyers” who have no history of any affiliation with the PTI and have jumped on the bandwagon.

The rift is so wide that PTI's founder has distanced himself from the party tickets distribution, saying that he was unaware.

The trusted PTI sources said it's a reality that PTI stands taken over by ambitious lawyers who are interested only in their own media projection.

Those PTI leaders, who spoke to The News, are currently on the run and on the ground and all shared similar grievances that the way tickets were distributed was nothing but a joke.

The sources said that for the Punjab tickets, PTI Punjab President Hammad Azhar should have been taken into confidence but he was ignored and not consulted at any level.

Several social media accounts affiliated with PTI have made allegations of financial corruption, saying that tens of millions were taken from the PTI candidates. They have said that merit was set aside for the sake of money and tickets were awarded to ex-lawmakers and influential personalities, at the cost of loyal workers.

The issue is not just confined to Punjab. Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, one of the members of Khan's legal team, said that he had conveyed workers' concerns over the controversial allotment of the tickets to the PTI founder. He said he shared his grievances with Khan in the presence of others.

He said: “In Punjab, a handsome number of lawyers have been given PTI tickets for contesting elections but the situation is different in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as most lawyers affiliated with the party had been ignored.”

The sources said, requesting anonymity, that a group in KP led by Ali Amin Gandapur had ignored the party's most loyal leaders including Asad Qaisar, Ali Mohammad Khan, Atif Khan, Shahram Tarakai, Shah Farman, and Shehryar Afridi.

A source close to Gandapur said he was also not consulted for the allocation of tickets at the national level.

In the entire process, said a source, PTI leader Barrister Gohar had no say.

“Barrister Gohar is a decent but weak person. The founding chairman has continued his policy of appointing weak people under him, such as Usman Buzdar in Punjab and now a lawyer who has no authority.”

Young PTI workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have staged a protest against the unfair distribution of party tickets without consideration for merit.

Uzair Wazir and Saud Shah Roghani alleged before the media that decisions were being made arbitrarily, without interviews or scrutiny of the candidates' credentials. They alleged that party tickets were being sold for Rs40 million.

PTI spokesperson Raoof Hassan told The News that “these are internal party matters and will be settled”.

Hassan said: “If there are any issues, these will be sorted. We will address any grievances as per rules and regulations.”