LAHORE  -  PTI may withdraw its presidential candidate in favour of PPP if the opposition parties decide on a joint contender for the office of the president, The Nation has learnt.
PPP which is the lead opposition party in the Parliament has not made a formal contact with PTI so far to ask for its support in an effort to put a joint presidential candidate, however, some close aides of the party chairman are of the opinion that Raza Rabbani is an appropriate candidate and there is no political damage if it supports his candidature provided the opposition parties decide to go for a joint fight for the office of the president.
PTI senior leader Arif Alvi, when contacted, said, “PPP has not contacted us so far, however, we can ponder over withdrawing our candidate in favour of PPP for the sake of a joint opposition contender and if Sindh’s ruling party takes up serious discussions with our party.”
When asked whether the opposition could field a joint candidate when the presidential polls were only five days away, he said, “The opposition can do so if it takes up sincere efforts for the purpose.”
As far as the PTI efforts to get support for its presidential candidate are concerned, the party leadership would meet the JI leadership and other parties to seek their backing in favour of Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed.
Contradicting the line taken by Arif Alvi, another PTI leader and Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed completely ruled out the possibility of supporting PPP’s presidential candidate.  He said, “PPP’s presidential candidate Raza Rabbani is an upright politician, but we cannot support him as he belongs to a party which plundered the country during its stint in power.”
Mehmood remarked that PPP had not tested able people like Raza Rabbani when it was enjoying power and fielded this man as a presidential candidate when his defeat was certain.
When asked about the PTI success in the presidential election, he said, “We don’t have the required number of votes to win, but fielding our candidate is just symbolic as PTI will emerge as the real challenger to the traditional political forces in the next presidential polls.”  Meanwhile, PTI sources claimed there were differences among the senior party leaders regarding supporting the PPP candidate as the party’s Sindh leaders wanted to align themselves with PPP keeping in view the political weight of the ruling party of the province.
Similarly, moderate party ranks of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa are also in favour of supporting Raza Rabbani provided the opposition decide to field a joint presidential candidate.
However, they revealed most of the Punjab chapter leaders had opposed the idea of supporting PPP’s presidential candidate even the opposition decided on a joint contender for the office. They added keeping in view the immediate political scenario in the Punjab, PTI should avoid aligning itself with PPP in any case.