Senior leadership of the mainstream political parties, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), are facing the ire of their political workers over denial of party tickets, with many opting to contest the May 11 general elections as independent candidates.
The upcoming general elections will be more crucial than the 2008 polls, as majority of youth, 18 and above, will exercise their right to franchise for the first time in their lives and a huge turnout is expected because of their participation. In the current scenario, according to sources, PPP is facing immense pressure from long-term party loyalists who have not been awarded ticket to contest elections. Protesters dispersed once they were assured by the party leadership that there would be a review of dispensing tickets.
Moreover, with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari abroad, the party needs a face to lead the campaign. Gilani remains disqualified with major scandals implicating his two sons, nor Raja Parvez Ashraf has been implicated in the rental power projects case or Amin Fahim implicated in the NICL scandal, have a clean record to lead the party to elections. The President cannot be seen to electioneer as per the court orders therefore the party would need to bring back Bilawal Bhutto back who may seek a greater voice in allocation of party tickets.
Sources said that a veteran leader, Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, has also developed differences with the party's parliamentary board in Sindh over the allotment of party tickets. They said that that the leadership is currently under immense pressure over allotment of the party's tickets especially in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the splinter group has publicly challenged the decision of the PPP provincial chapter president Anwar Saifullah Khan and many renowned old-party guards are contemplating contesting the elections as independent candidates.
PML-N is also facing a similar problem due to entry of turncoats in the party. The old loyalists of the party, sources added, are not in favour of awarding party tickets to them, questioning their credibility as majority of them were loyal to Musharraf.
They said that the top leadership of the party has given standing instructions to the provincial parliamentary board to resolve the issue of awarding tickets to deserving candidates, besides resolving the differences between old and new party members.
The sources said that PML-N is in a fix due to pressure from the workers, as they have conveyed to top leadership of the party that any unjust award of tickets will have serious repercussions, and the workers sacrifices during dictatorial regime of General (Retd) Musharraf should not be ignored.
The party is also facing a similar situation in Lahore where protests can be seen on the streets over nepotism and favouritism in awarding the party tickets while ignoring the diehard workers. Another major problem faced by PML-N is that some of its senators including Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal and Zafarullah Dhandla, were keen to contest elections but they were denied tickets by the party leadership.
However, a senior PML-N leader, while defending the parliamentary board decisions, said that the board was only awarding the tickets on merit and also ruled out differences among the party. The PTI, which is going to take part in the general elections after boycotting the 2008 polls, has also not been able to convince the turncoats from PPP, PML (N) and PML (Q) that had joined PTI to secure a ticket to accept the party decision not to award them a ticket.
Imran Khan wants to live up to the expectations of the people by awarding tickets to clean, honest and young people in the upcoming elections. The fair-weather politicians who had recently joined PTI kept their fingers crossed till last minute with the hope of getting a ticket irrespective of party policy but when Khan opted for a tough scrutiny of the candidates before awarding the tickets, they had no option but to separate themselves from tsunami of PTI.
Inamullah Khan Niazi, who also happens to be Imran's close relative, was denied a party ticket because he is a bank defaulter. He has appealed the decision but at the same time applied as an independent candidate in the polls. Asef Ahmed Ali, is another senior PTI leader, who left the party after failing to get the party ticket from Kasur while Sikandar Hayyat Bosan, another potential electable from Multan, quit the party and is going to contest polls as an independent candidate.