Situationer: PTI again facing allegations its tickets on sale for Punjab polls

KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is once again facing allegations that money is being sought for awarding its tickets to contest the Punjab Assembly elections.

In recent days, some audio clips have surfaced giving the impression that sale and purchase of the PTI’s tickets is going for the Punjab Assembly polls. Imran Khan, however, has claimed that he himself has issued these tickets this time after proper scrutiny and interviewing prospective candidates.On Saturday, two alleged audio clips pertaining to the son of former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar surfaced indicating that money was being used to secure PTI tickets. It is a serious allegation as Justice (retired) Saqib Nisar also conceded that he used his influence for a party ticket.

How much stronger was Justice (retired) Nisar’s recommendation could be gauged from the fact that the constituency in question is PPP-137 Sheikhupura where a person, namely Malik Iqbal, was firstly awarded the PTI ticket, but after a few days a revised list was issued showing that a person, Abu Zar, had secured the same ticket instead of Iqbal. The interesting aspect is that just a day after the audio clip surfaced, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry came up with the claim that the after an inquiry, the allegation that the money was spent on securing the ticket proved to be wrong. The PTI could better tell how it is possible to probe into such a serious allegation in a few hours. But this affair related to the sale and purchase of the PTI ticket was not just confined to Saqib Nisar. Some days earlier, an alleged audio leak of PTI leader Ejaz Chaudhry also surfaced indicating that he allegedly demanded Rs10 million as donation from an aspirant of the PTI ticket for arranging his meeting with Imran Khan.

It is a fact that this is not the first time that such allegations have surfaced regarding the award of PTI tickets, as almost before every election such proofs and allegations came from inside the party, and later on Imran Khan used to say that there wouldn’t be a repeat of the mistakes that had taken place in the past.

In March this year, PTI Chairman Imran Khan himself conceded that money was spent for securing PTI tickets for contesting 2018 general elections, and this time he himself would award the tickets on merit. Even in 2018 he had claimed that the parliamentary board working under him selected the best candidates on merit for the award of the party tickets.

But today, after five years, Khan has backtracked on his claim and negated his own statement, rendering controversial the parliamentary board, which worked under him. The question now arises is: who in fact was involved in spending money in this case and who were the beneficiaries in this matter.

The PTI has faced a similar situation several times in the past. In March 2021 the party wilfully ensured the success of a candidate contesting the Senate elections against whom it had earlier levelled the allegation that the candidate in question used money to become a senator. In 2021, Khan without naming anyone disclosed that a rate of Rs500 million to Rs700 million had been in vogue for becoming a senator from Balochistan. Khan also disclosed that he awarded the ticket to a person, namely Abdul Qadir, for contesting the Senate polls from Balochistan as no record was available showing when he joined the PTI. During this time, Balochistan PTI leader Babar Yousufzai, in an interview, had disclosed that Abdul Qadir was the same candidate against whom a complaint was sent to Khan that he (Abdul Qadir) was spending Rs500 million to Rs700 million on horse-trading to ensure his victory in the Senate polls.

Once this issue came under the media’s spotlight and the matter also came under internal party criticism, the PTI ticket was withdrawn from Abdul Qadir and given to Zahoor Agha. But after a few days, a surprising development took place as Abdul Qadir independently won the Senate elections as the PTI a week before the polls withdraw the candidature of Zahoor Agha in favour of the Balochistan Awami Party. The BAP supported Abdul Qadir in the Senate polls as an independent candidate.

While appearing in Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada kay Saath”, Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that this election adjustment was made by the Balochistan chapter of the PTI and the Islamabad PTI had nothing to do with it, meaning that the PTI voted to ensure victory of Abdul Qadir in the Senate polls after withdrawing the party ticket from him with the allegation that he used money to win the elections. After a few days Abdul Qadir became a senator, he again rejoined the PTI. Imran Khan himself met Abdul Qadir at his Bani Gala residence and included him in the PTI.

During this time, PTI leaders kept on claiming that no one among them knew Abdul Qadir as he was awarded the party ticket even before he joined the PTI

Apart from this, allegations also came to surface regarding the use of money in the PTI’s intra-party elections as voices were heard from inside the party in this regard. Imran Khan ordered the expulsion of such persons from the party who were involved in criticism in this regard. Khan then stood by such elements which faced the allegation of using money in the intra-party elections. Last year, the PTI chief conceded that he twice tried to conduct the intra-party polls but failed to hold them in a fair manner.

Khan himself admitted that they tried to hold the intra-party elections for the second time, but could not succeed in doing so. He said he desired that the second time the intra-party elections be held using digital means, but the system didn’t work well.

The intra-party polls were then stopped midway for that reason, but the fact of the matter was that the polls were put on hold, not for this reason. The real reason that the elections were postponed was due to differences between Imran Khan and his party’s election commissioner. In 2013, the PTI’s intra-party elections took place and again became controversial. Allegations surfaced regarding the use of money and these accusations came directly from PTI leaders. Afterwards, Khan tasked a senior leader of the party, Justice (retired) Wajihuddin Ahmed, to inquire into this issue. In his findings, Wajihuddin held responsible four party leaders, including Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan and Pervez Khattak while alleging that these leaders influenced the process of the intra-party polls. Wajihuddin repeatedly alleged that Janagir Tareen and other party leaders were involved in rigging the elections. In 2015, the other member of the tribunal, Yousuf Gabol, while appearing in the programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath”, claimed that proofs were present that money had been spent in the intra-party polls. Now all this matter was put before Imran Khan, but later what happened was completely contrary to the expectations. No action was taken against the persons against whom allegations were levelled by the two-member probe tribunal. Instead, the party membership of Wajihuddin and Yousuf Gabol was suspended and later on Imran Khan dissolved the tribunal in question and also asked Wajihuddin to leave this position. In August 2015 his (Wajihuddin’s) party membership was suspended and later in September 2016 Wajihuddin resigned from the PTI saying that he couldn’t remain in the party anymore. Wajihuddin left the party after the controversy surfaced in the aftermath of the first intra-party polls as the next intra-party polls also became controversial. The PTI for holding the intra-party polls appointed Tasneem Noorani as election commissioner on 24 March 2015. But after a year Noorani resigned from this position in March 2016, and the reason again this time was the intra-party polls because Khan had developed differences with Noorani on this issue. Afterwards, Khan alleged that Noorani had assumed his (PTI chairman’s) powers. While appearing in ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’ programme, Tasneem Noorani said Khan wanted that the polls should be held on just one post, and if this recommendation was implemented, Khan would become chairman of the PTI as the rest of the party offices were to be filled on the basis of his (Khan’s) nominations. Then last year after meeting Khan, PTI leader Hamid Khan also upheld the version of Noorani. While appearing in Shahzab Khanzada’s programme, Hamid Khan said that Imran Khan accepted the proposal of Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan and didn’t allow the intra-party polls.