LAHORE Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has announced candidates for the by-elections on 14 seats in Punjab and demanded deployment of Army inside the polling station to ensure transparency in the elections. Besides, the PTI Punjab leadership has also demanded Election Commission of Pakistan to draft the polling scheme after consulting the candidates. The announcement of the PTI candidates was made at a Press conference addressed by President Punjab Ejaz Chaudhry and General Secretary Dr Yasmin Rashid. According to the list of PTI candidates for the vacant seats in Punjab, Ayla Malik, the former MNA elected on reserved seats on the ticket of Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari’s Millat Party in 2002, has been nominated as party candidate from NA-71, the seat vacated by party Chairman Imran Khan. Ayla is the sister of Sumera Malik, PML-N MNA from Khushab. NA-71, Mianwali, 1 is one of the three seats won by Imran Khan in the recent general elections in which he won from NA-1 Peshawar and NA-56 Rawalpindi. Imran Khan has retained the seat of NA-56, Rawalpindi from where he defeated PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi. Faizullah Kamoka is another known figure, who has been awarded ticket for the by-elections from NA-83, Faisalabad. Faizullah Kamoka remained associated with PPP till 2010. He was elected MPA in 2002 elections on PPP ticket but lost in 2008. He is now PTI ticket-holder from NA-83. On NA-68, Sargodha, the seat vacated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PTI has awarded ticket to Nazir Sobi. From Lahore, where by-elections will take place on one NA and three PA seats, PTI has announced the names of Mansha Sindhu, Malik Waqar, Mehr Wajid and Khalid Gujjar. Mansha Sindhu, the three times winner on the provincial seat falling in rural areas of Lahore remained MPA in 1993, 1997 and 2002 elections, twice on PML-N and once on PML-Q ticket. He lost the 2008 election on PML-N ticket from the provincial seat and after joining PTI he was pitched from NA-129 and contested recent election against Shahbaz Sharif from the seat but lost. NA-129 has been vacated by Shahbaz Sharif who took oath as Punjab Chief Minister. Malik Waqar, the PTI ticket-holder from PP-142 in recent general elections has been pitched once again from the same seat. This seat was won by Hamza Shahbaz who took oath as MNA from NA-119. Mehr Wajid, the PTI ticket-holder from PP-150 has been fielded once again. He lost to Mehr Ishtiaq of PML-N in the recent elections who won from National Assembly seat also and took oath as MNA. Khalid Gujjar will contest from PP-161, the seat he lost to Shahbaz Sharif in recent general elections. The other candidates fielded by PTI on vacant seats include Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi (PP-6, Rawalpindi), Ajmal Cheema (PP-51, Faisalabad), Saad Khurshid Kanju (PP-210, Lodhran), Chaudhry Maqsood (PP-217, Khanewal), Sardar Ahmed Ali Dareshak (PP-243, Dera Ghazi Khan), Abdul Hayee Dasti (PP-244, Muzaffargarh), Dr Ziaullah Jatoi (PP-289, Rajanpur). Talking to media on the occasion, the PTI leaders said that first 50 days of Nawaz government were nothing but a sheer disappointment for the entire nation. They said that the taxes imposed by the PML-N government had hit the poor segment of society hard and life of a common man had become miserable. They also said that in Faisalabad, huge bills up to Rs 0.5 million had been sent to the owners of power looms in the name of fuel adjustment and NAB had been assigned the task to make recovery. The PTI leadership said that party fully supported the demand of power looms owners who were going on strike against the action of the federal government. The party leadership also expressed profound grief over the loss of innocent lives of the members of Hazara community in Quetta and demanded government to take immediate measures to ensure security of citizen.
