LAHORE - PTI chairman Imran Khan will formally lead the electoral campaign for the by-polls of provincial capital today amid security threats.
Imran Khan is among those high-profile figures that can become possible target of assassination attempts by the terrorists.
He will start the poll drive for by-elections in NA-122 and PP-147 to be held on October 11.
Party leaders who have planned the by-polls campaign told The Nation that they advised the party’s Punjab and City chapter leaderships not to make public the detailed programme of Imran Khan’s election drive tour because of security threats to his life. The public meetings of party chairman for the election campaign will be made public shortly before his arrival in the constituencies. However some party leaders differing with the mangers of by-election drive were of the opinion without making in advance announcement of Imran tour details of the said constituencies would not get the desired results.
They were of the suggestion the campaign managers should come up with the idea by which party chairman’s tour plan could be make public.
A PTI leader said Imran Khan is likely to start poll drive tour from PP-148 which is part of NA-122 but the exact plan will be announced after he start the campaign.
Meanwhile, PTI accused the government of flouting a ban on new uplift projects to influence the forthcoming polls in Punjab and called on the Election Commission to intervene.
PTI leader Chaudhary Sarwar claimed the government had announced new projects worth more than three billion rupees for Faisalabad in breach of Election Commission directives.
The accusations came against the backdrop of PTI fears concerning rigging of the upcoming by-polls and local bodies’ elections by the ruling party. PTI had alleged PML-N for stealing the general elections of 2013. The election tribunals found irregularities in NA-122 and NA-125 during 2013 polls in the result of PTI petitions.
Rejecting the possibilities of boycotting the polls and launching an anti-government drive, Sarwar said his party despite all the pressure tactics of PML-N would contest the by-polls and local bodies elections.
“An elected government in a western democracy definitely stepped down if rigging charges proved against it. The ruling party says it believes in the democratic principles but its actions speak otherwise.
“The PML-N government should have resigned when the election tribunals found polls irregularities against the ruling party candidates.”