PTI contesting elections for win: Imran

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Friday told the ‘angry’ party activists that the party is contesting the elections for victory, therefore, tickets have been awarded to such candidates who know the science of winning the polls.

He assured the activists that he will make a final decision on the award of tickets to candidates for general elections within three days.

Appearing before the disgruntled party workers encamped outside his Banigala residence, Imran emphasised that the only criteria he was taking into consideration was merit. The PTI chairman contended that while deciding candidates for the elections, it did not matter who joined earlier or later.

"We are contesting elections to win. We can only bring change once we win the polls," Imran said. "As many as 4,500 candidates applied for the tickets. We have reviewed our decisions where there have been reservations," he pointed out.

On the occasion, Imran candidly conceded that the most difficult part of this process was awarding tickets to women. The PTI chairman said: "I spent 126 days in sit-in, bit the last three days, during which I had to decide on the ticket allocation, were the most difficult of all."

The PTI chief made it clear to the audience that not a single party ticket was allotted to any of his family members contrary to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and alleged that there was no merit in the PML-N, as they had given tickets to the wives and daughters of the influential politicians.

After assurance of the PTI chief, the angry activists ended their sit-in.

Meanwhile, in a video message, Imran also announced to kick-off his party’s nationwide election campaign from Mianwali.

"We will start campaign from Mianwali's hockey stadium. There is a reason behind why we are starting our campaign from Mianwali," he said, adding: "Because of Mianwali's youth, the PTI has become the biggest political party and had they not elected me to the National Assembly as its member in 2002 elections, I would have perhaps not been doing politics today.”

Imran again said that his party would make Pakistan as was dreamt by Allama Iqbal and for which Quaid-i-Azam had launched a struggle, leading to its creation. “The dream of Pakistan becoming a great nation will be realised,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, in Twitter message, Imran said, “Since almost a week I have used all resources available including surveys to assess if & where merit may have been ignored in ticket allocation. I assure all who have submitted complaints that before announcing the final list I will ensure that where merit was bypassed it is restored.”

Commenting on the state of economy and performance of the PML-N government, Imran wrote that the caretaker government must explain the correct economic situation to the nation. “Just see 3 newspaper headlines, which sum up what PML-N government did to economy in 5 years!” he said.