Ali Tareen, the son of disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Jahangir Tareen on Thursday submitted nomination papers to contest the bye-election on Lodhran's NA-154 constituency. Jahangir Tareen, the former general secretary of the PTI, lost his seat earlier this month when he was disqualified by the Supreme Court under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution.
Ali Tareen, a foreign-educated businessman and social worker based in Lahore and Lodhran, posted on Twitter that becoming an MNA was never part of his plan but he made the decision following the "request" of the people of Lodhran.
As per the by-election schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, December 28 was the last day of filing nomination papers while a final list of candidates would be displayed on December 29. The scrutiny of papers would be completed by January 5, 2018 while polling would be held on February 12. On the other hand, Ameer Baloch, son of PML-N's Siddique Baloch, is the PML-N candidate against Ali Tareen.
In the May 2013 general elections, Siddique Baloch defeated Jahangir Tareen in NA-154 by a margin of 10,000 votes. However, Siddique was disqualified in August 2015 for possessing a fake degree. In the bye-poll, Jahangir Tareen bagged the seat after defeating Siddique Baloch, who was allowed to contest the by-poll, with a margin of around 35,000 votes.