Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, one of the members of the legal team representing the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, said on Saturday that he had conveyed workers’ concerns about the controversial distribution of the party tickets to the PTI founder.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Marwat said that Khan had announced withdrawal of controversial tickets for the General Election 2024 that is scheduled to take place across Pakistan on February 8.

Distribution of PTI tickets for the national and provincial assembly seats caused an uproar within the PTI, particularly in KP where some party leaders vying for the position of chief minister, were denied tickets for provincial seats and were given tickets for National Assembly (NA) seats.

Reports say that some influential contenders for chief minister’s slot have been given tickets for the NA seats to pave the way for Ali Amin Gandapur as possible chief minister of KP if the party wins the elections.

Reports suggest that party leaders like Asad Qasier, Atif Khan, Shah Farman, Shahram Tarakai, Junaid Khan and Sheheryar Khan Afridi were not given tickets for KP Assembly seats and they were asked by the party to contest the election for the NA seats only. 

These leaders are protesting that despite their seniority in the party, they have not been consulted in the ticket allocation exercise. They also conveyed a message to the founder chairman of PTI Imran Khan, expressing their no-confidence in the ticket allocation exercise.

A day earlier, the former ruling party announced fielding candidates for all 266 National Assembly seats across Pakistan. However, several constituencies had been marked ‘pending’, mainly due to a difference of opinion in naming the candidates.