Imran Khan’s party forms panel to award poll tickets

Internews/Islamabad

Political strategy committee of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf yesterday decided to form a parliamentary board to initiate the process of awarding tickets to its activists for the next year’s general election, keeping in view their track record.

“The forum also held detailed deliberations on the widely reported and discussed massive rally of Dr Allama Tahirul Qadri in Lahore on Sunday and noted that PTI and Qadri had many things in common,” said a PTI source privy to the meeting.

The meeting, chaired by PTI chairman Imran Khan, also rejected a proposal to remove Shafqat Mehmood as the party’s information secretary. The proposal was reportedly aired by an informal meeting in Karachi on Monday, a source claimed.

The committee laid emphasis on better co-ordination within the information department of the party and on observing extreme care while issuing statements with regard to the party’s views on issues and parties.

However, when approached on telephone, Shafqat Mehmood said there was no truth in reports that he was being removed or had been removed as information secretary. “There is no truth in such reports,” he maintained.

PTI source said that Imran was upset over initial reaction of the information secretary on Dr Qadri’s rally, as he and the party fully supported the rally and welcomed Dr Qadri’s speech, Shafqat Mehmood had reportedly criticised it.

Shafqat has set up his office in Lahore while the central media centre exists in the Central Secretariat here while Ayla Malik has also established a media centre at her residence in Islamabad.

Interestingly, former information secretary Omar Sarfraz Cheema also belonged to Lahore. PTI’s secretary general Dr Arif Alvi is Karachi-based.

At a function in Lahore, Imran announced to award 25% party tickets to the youth below 35 years of age and promised to finance their election campaign through a fund-raising campaign.

The forum welcomed the response Imran got during his Sindh visit and expected more people would turn up at the public meetings he planned to address during his Mianwali tour.