PTI youth wing accuses party leaders of selling tickets

The Express Tribune

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) youth wing on Tuesday accused the party’s parliamentary board of taking bribes in exchange for allotting tickets to candidates for the upcoming polls. Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, PTI youth wing provincial General Secretary Fahim Ahmad Khan claimed he was initially allotted a ticket to contest from PK-6. Khan alleged some people from the parliamentary board later demanded money from him, saying if he did not pay up, his ticket would be given to someone else. “Imran Khan himself recommended my name to the board for a ticket, but the members ignored me because they asked for money and I refused to pay. Thus, my ticket was given to another person,” Fahim alleged. “Initially, I was asked to pay Rs1.5 million. However, the amount later came down to Rs0.5 million. I was told to deposit the money to an account number that was sent to me. All this communication was done through the president of PTI youth wing backed by PTI’s provincial president and general secretary,” claimed Fahim. He accused Shah Farman, Parvez Khattak and PTI provincial president Asad Qaiser of demanding money from candidates. Fahim added a ticket for PK-40 Karak was to be issued to Altaf Qadir Khattak, but when he went to the returning officer (RO) he was informed his ticket had been issued to someone else. Former PTI district president Zafar Khattak also spoke at the press conference. He alleged the ticket for PK-1 Peshawar was sold for Rs10 million, while the rates of some other tickets were fixed at Rs5 million. Zafar maintained the PTI was violating its own rule of allotting tickets on merit. He said they [the youth wing] would start a campaign against corrupt politicians who are destroying the PTI’s image. However, the former office bearer said they would neither quit the party nor stop supporting Imran Khan. “We will go into Asad Qaiser and Parvez Khattak’s constituencies and tell voters to be careful of who they vote for,” said Zafar. The activists of the youth wing demanded PTI chief Imran Khan to form an inquiry committee to probe the accusations, and cancel the membership of those found guilty.