The final phase of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) intra-party elections completed here on Thursday. Election for 42 seats of PTI's National Council was held at Awan-e-Iqbal. The polling started 9:00am in the morning and concluded at 6:00 pm. Polling took place on 28 seats, as 14 were elected unopposed. As many as 208 votes were cast out of the total 231 votes.
Javed Hashmi, Umer Sarfraz Cheema and Dr Sania were in the race for the slot of central president while Dr Arif Alvi, Pervez Khattak and Rashid Khan were contesting for the position of party's central general secretary. Till the filing of this report the counting was in progress and according to a PTI's spokesperson the results were expected late in the night.
During the elections, Umar Safraz Cheema, a presidential candidate, filed an objection with the Election Commission against his opponent Javed Hashmi. He (Omar) took the plea that Javed Hashmi is a bank defaulter and also medically unfit to carry out the duties of party president. Thus he should not be allowed to take part in the elections, he pleaded. However, PTI Election Commissioner Hamid Khan rejected the plea on the ground that an objection cannot be filed on the polling day.
PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry condemned the action of Umar Safraz Cheema and said that his action was against the party's discipline. "He should have taken up the matter within party," he added. The Election Commission disqualified PTI leader Fauzia Kasuri for having dual nationality and hence she was not allowed to contest intra-party elections. Fauzia, who was the president of PTI women wing, was running for the same slot.
It may be mentioned that Imran Khan was elected as PTI Chairman unopposed, and similarly former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also elected as Vice Chairman after Bakhtiar Kasuri, brother of former Foreign Minister and PTI leader Khursheed Kasuri, and Saifullah Niazi withdrew their nomination papers. Moreover, Azam Khan Swati was also elected as Senior Vice President (Religious) unopposed, as no one else filed nomination papers against him.
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Imran Khan visited the polling station to inspect the on-going balloting. While talking to newsmen, Imran said to celebrate the success of elections and end of people's suffering from five-year corrupt rule, PTI was organising a grand function at Minar-e-Pakistan on March 22 (today). "And on March 23, we will hold the biggest public gathering in the history of Pakistan. We show the PTI critics what a tsunami looks like," he added.
"This is a fight for a change in the country, it is a 'Panipat Jung' (war). On March 23, the people will decide either for new Pakistan or status quo. I think the people have decided to bring a change in the country," he said. While congratulating the party workers on completion of intra-party elections, the PTI Chairman said all were winners in the elections and now they would tell other political parties how a party election was conducted.