The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday announced the names of the party’s candidates for the Senate in upcoming elections from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, sidelining party loyalists and potentially setting off a face-off with disgruntled candidates.
In a statement, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram said a meeting of the party’s Political Committee had finalized the names of Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed, Mirza Khan Afridi, Pir Noorul Haq Qadri for general seats. Additionally, it said, Rubina Naz was finalized for the women’s seat and Azam Khan Swati for the technocrat seat. It said Mushaal Yousafzai would be the party’s candidate to replace Sania Nishtar, whose seat was vacated earlier this year.
Akram said that, in accordance with directives of PTI Patron-in-Chief Imran Khan, both the Parliamentary Committee and the Political Committee had endorsed these names. He said the KP Parliamentary Party had further decided to prefer uncontested polls to “eliminate” horse-trading and ensure transparency. In this regard, he said a majority vote of the Political Committee had decided to withdraw the nomination papers of covering candidates.
The decision risks alienating PTI loyalists, as indicated by the party’s Peshawar chapter, which has threatened protests if workers are not accommodated in the Senate. “Irfan Saleem is Peshawar’s Imran Khan,” said former district general secretary Jalal Khan at a press conference in Peshawar Press Club on Friday. He was referring to the president of PTI’s Peshawar chapter, sidelined in favor of Mirza Khan Afridi, who party workers claim does not represent them.
According to Jalal, Saleem has never wavered in his support for the PTI, lamenting that the candidate was earlier denied seats for the national and provincial assemblies. He further alleged Afridi had sought to distance himself from the PTI after the May 9, 2023 riots, while Saleem had “suffered” at the hands of law enforcement agencies.
The burgeoning rift also threatens the PTI’s aim for uncontested polls, as it requires PTI candidates Irfan Saleem, Ayesha Bano, Irshad Hussain, Khurram Zeeshan and Waqas Orakzai to withdraw their names.