KOHAT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf disgruntled activist Shafi Jan who secured 25,783 votes as an independent candidate in Dec 19 polls for the Kohat tehsil chairman slot has demanded of Prime Minister Imran Khan to call the workers to know the truth about nepotism in the award of tickets.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said that a wealthy party leader Shahbaz Gul Shinwari was made president of Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa though he had supported independents in 2013 and 2018 general elections, and in 2015 local body polls.

Shafi Jan said he secured more votes than the PTI ticket-holder Suleman Shinwari who got 15,219 votes though Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl candidate won the election for the tehsil top slot.

Shahbaz Shinwari had fielded his son Suleman Shinwari against the wishes of the district leadership for the tehsil top slot.

Disgruntled activist Shafi Jan urges PM to probe the matter

Similarly, in Lachi tehsil prominent PTI activist Ehsan was ignored who won the seat with 8,707 votes and defeated PTI ticket-holder Saim Qureshi who could get 7,907 votes. Saim was the son of PTI’s former provincial minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi.

Shafi Jan regretted that PTI cancelled his party membership and had suspended membership of 20 other leaders.

He explained that workers were so annoyed that they put pressure on the disgruntled aspirants to contest the elections as independents and the result was before the party.

He held responsible the leaders for nepotism in the distribution of tickets, demanding strict action against them.

He lamented that the party leaders distributed the tickets among their relatives and challenged the stance that a parliamentary board was constituted for the purpose.

Shafi Jan recalled that his late father Saadullah Khan had laid the foundation of PTI in Kohat in 2000 when nobody knew it and invited Imran Khan for a rally in 2003.

JAILED: Kohat model court judge announcing judgment in a double murder case on Thursday sentenced an accused to 50 years imprisonment.

Judge Ali Amir Ali Shah after the trial of the case against Abdullah Khan for the murder of Hafiz Atlas and Qamar Rehman in 2018 sent him to prison for 50 years and ordered him to pay compensation of Rs1 million to the deceased’s family.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021