ISLAMABAD - The life in Bani Gala returned to normal Friday evening after dozens of PTI workers called off their protest on assurance from their party chief Imran Khan.

The angry workers happily bestrode their rides, mostly buses parked in the empty plots of the area, after Imran assured them of reconsidering the nominations of the party tickets for the upcoming general elections in next three days.

He said nominations were a difficult decision as around 4,500 candidates had applied for the tickets. He said the three-day process of tickets allocation was even harder than the sit-in staged by the PTI in Islamabad in 2014.

He admitted allotment of the party tickets to women candidates was even tougher. He explained that while deciding the allotment of tickets, merit was strictly observed and the tickets were allotted to the candidates who can win elections. He said candidates were selected on the basis of their experience in contesting elections.

“We can only bring change if we form our government, to make a government we need a simple majority, that’s why we need electables,” Khan explained. He said not a single party ticket was allocated to any of his family members contrary to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

While answering criticism that PTI has become another status quo party after allotting tickets to turncoats, Khan criticised PML-N and said, “There is no merit in the PML-N. They have given tickets to wives, daughters of influential figures, but PTI has taken decisions on merit.”

Khan on his twitter account also shared the same assurance. “I assure all complainants that before issuing final list, I will ensure that merit is followed in every case, if not, it will be corrected,” Khan tweeted in Urdu.

Although the demonstrators left for their homes after besieging Imran’s house for five consecutive days, apparently, on Khan’s assurance to reconsider the decisions on all controversial seats, many have many doubts.

“I am hurt, I have wasted 20 years of my youth for the party and now tickets have been given to some unknown people, what merit is he talking about,” said a woman protester.

While addressing protesters, Khan announced his election campaign will kick off from Mianwali from tomorrow. “We will start campaign from Mianwali’s hockey stadium,” he said. Sharing the reason to initiate campaign from Mianwali, he said the youth of Mianwali have become the biggest political party.