Tickets on parliamentary board’s recommendations, says Shahbaz

LAHORE: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Friday said candidates would be awarded tickets for the forthcoming elections on the recommendation of the party's parliamentary board, Geo News reported.

Following his return from London, the PML-N president chaired a meeting in Lahore to oversee the party’s plan for the upcoming election, which was attended by senior party representatives, including his Hamza Shahbaz.

Addressing the meeting, Shehbaz said candidates showing merit, discipline and loyalty would be given priority. The PML-N leadership also mulled over its electoral strategy for Lahore following former MPA Zaeem Qadri’s outburst on Thursday.

Sources say PML-N leader Pervez Malik is likely to get the party ticket from NA-125. Malik's chances of getting the party ticket have cast doubt over former provincial minister Bilal Yasin's candidacy from the same constituency. Yasin, a relative of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, insists that he should contest the election from NA-125, if Maryam Nawaz chooses to run for NA-127 seat, according to the sources.

They say Malik, for contesting the election from NA-125, has put forth the condition that Yasin would also not be given ticket to contest for provincial assembly seat PP-150.

Speaking to Geo News, Yasin said he was contesting for the provincial assembly, not a National Assembly seat. "If Maryam Nawaz contests the election from NA-125 then I will contest the polls from PP-150," he said.

Yasin claimed that he had spoken to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam on the issue before they left for London.

According to the sources, former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq, who is contesting from NA-129, may be given a party ticket to contest against Qadri from NA-133. Following the meeting, PML-N Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leaders Amir Muqam and Murtaza Javed Abbasi called on Shahbaz. They apprised the party president of the election campaign in the province along with the distribution of party tickets.