Asif Zardari agrees to award three tickets to Arbab Alamgir family

PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in on Tuesday agreed to award party’s tickets for the two national and one provincial assembly seats to Arbab family and directed them to launch election campaign.

The decision was taken at a meeting with the former federal minister Arbab Alamgir Khan in Karachi.

Asif Zardari had invited the PPP leaders from Peshawar to Karachi to discuss distribution of party tickets and resolve the existing differences in the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The member of parliamentary committee, former senator Farhatullah Babar and opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah were also present.

The PPP Co-chairman had already nominated Asma Alamgir, the wife of Arbab Alamgir, for NA-27 even before the formation of parliamentary committee and reaffirmed his commitment with Arbab’s family in the meeting. He also confirmed that Arbab Alamgir Khan would contest election from constituency NA-30, Peshawar, and his son Arbab Zarak from PK-74, Peshawar.

The former federal minister and his son had applied for the party tickets but did not appear before the parliamentary board, saying they could not tolerate the insulting remarks against the party and its leadership.

Talking to The News after meeting with the party’s central leaders, Arbab Alamgir Khan said that he apprised the party’s chairman of the ground reality and also about the parliamentary board, which has no representation of the entire Peshawar.

Asma Alamgir Khan said that some unelected people, doing drawing room politics, had damaged the party by creating gulf between the workers and leaders. Such conspirators, she said, were portraying wrong pictures to the party leadership.

Asma Alamgir said that the wrong policies of unelected people had created gulf between the leadership and the influential families like Hotis of Mardan, Saifullah’s brothers and Arbab families.

“But now the leaders’ have also realised the real situation,” she said, adding, the central leaders had also invited other senior leaders from KP to resolve the issues and expressed the hope that the matters would be resolved. She said the parliamentary committee meant for distribution of party tickets had no representation of Peshawar that had created unrest among the workers.

Asma Alamgir, however, said the problems had been solved now and the workers would play their active role in upcoming elections.