PTI to field Aleem Khan for NA-122 by-poll

ISLAMABAD: The national advisory council of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has informally decided to field senior party leader Aleem Khan to contest the NA-122 by-polls.
Sources privy to the meeting revealed to The News that Ch. Sarwar was not considered for the electoral bout as he faced a two-year constitutional bar to contest the polls as he served as the governor Punjab. The informal decision to give the ticket to Aleem, they pointed out, would be resented for he is blamed with some others for PTI’s fiasco in the Lahore cantonment elections, held a few months back.
Though Imran appreciated him in his late night speech in Lahore after the tribunal’s decision on NA-122 and provincial constituencies, the decision to give him a ticket to contest the by-polls would be agitated and this would strongly go in favour of PML-N’s candidate. In Punjab, PTI finds itself divided in two major groups: One is headed by Aleem Khan, enjoying support of Jehangir Tareen and the other led by Ch. Sarwar, Hamid Khan and some others. During Imran Khan’s news conference after the council meeting, Tareen’s group was on the stage while the other was missing completely from the media view.
When senior party leader Hamid Khan was asked to give his views on the tribunal’s judgment, he expressed his inability to do so, as none had provided him a copy of the judgment.
“Though the forum celebrated the election tribunal’s decision as a huge victory at a crucial time when local bodies polls are around, but quite interestingly, none had gone through the decision or had brought it to share it during the proceedings,” sources pointed out.