Ticket distribution: PTI workers continue protests at Zaman Park for third day

LAHORE: Hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside the residence of former prime minister and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan at Zaman Park on Monday, and continued protesting for the third consecutive day against the refusal of party tickets to “deserving candidates” for the upcoming election to the Punjab Assembly.

Party sources said the protesters belonged to Faisalabad and Dera Ghazi Khan and other parts of Punjab. Charged protesters, led by PTI leaders and former ticket-holder of PP-110 Faisalabad Chaudhry Mehboob Alam Sindhu, reached Zaman Park in a rally. They raised slogans against the PTI leadership for issuing ticket to Asad Moazzam for PP-110 while ignoring Alam.

The protesters crossed the security cordon and managed to reach just outside the main gate of Imran Khan’s residence. They demanded the withdrawal of the ticket from Asad Moazzam whom, they claimed, Imran Khan had expelled from the party a couple of years ago on corruption charges. They said corruption in the PTI ranks would not be allowed.

Talking to the media, the party workers alleged that Asad Moazzam had managed to obtain the ticket by greasing the palms of the PTI leadership. They said Ch Mehboob Alam was a committed activist of the PTI for the last 12 years. He had confronted the opponents with courage to establish a solid support base for the party in Faisalabad city, they claimed. Another group of PTI workers from DG Khan interrupted the speech of Imran Khan and demanded that he review the issuance of party ticket for PP-292, DG Khan, to Ghazanfar Gureja Abbas. They alleged that he was a feudal lord and a permanent resident of Australia who managed to get the ticket by using his wealth.

Imran Khan also counselled the angry workers complaining about the issuance of party tickets to feudal lords, saying that Pakistani politics had been confined to the families of feudal lords for decades. But “what I see is that Pakistan is changing and time is not far away when all the families of Sardars and feudal lords will be wiped out by the continuation of democracy and only merit will prevail.”

Imran said it was unfortunate that democracy had never been allowed to continue in the country, which resulted in the families of feudal lords consolidating their grip over politics. Otherwise, he added, people would themselves bring forward those leaders who qualify on merit.