PESHAWAR: Awarding of tickets for the Senate elections in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has taken a new turn, when Maryam Riaz Wattoo, sister of PTI founder Bushra Bibi’s wife, expressed serious reservations over the Senate ticket given to Mashal Yousafzai.
Maryam Riaz Wattoo clarified in her statement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) “Bushra Bibi did not recommend Mashal Yousafzai’s for ticket, no one should be given a ticket using my sister’s name.”
She claimed that she had also conveyed a message to PTI’s legal advisor Salman Akram Raja in this regard. She said, “If there is any compulsion from the party or any high-level order, then that is in its place, but if a ticket was obtained by going to jail and lying, then it is very regrettable.”
It should be remembered that recently, PTI has finalised the names of candidates for the Senate elections from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the party statement Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed, Mirza Khan Afridi and Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri will be candidates for the general seats Rubina Naz for the women’s seat Azam Swati for the technocrat seat, while Mashal Yousafzai has been nominated for the vacant seat of Sania Nishtar.
However, after Maryam Wattoo’s statement, it is clear that the differences within the party over the selection of Mashal Yousafzai have not completely ended, and questions still arose on the decisions regarding specific tickets. According to political analysts, this statement may further strengthen the concerns related to the crisis of transparency within the ranks of the PTI and personal influence in decision-making.
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