ISLAMABAD Dec 29 (TNS): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has recently nominated Jehangir Khan Tareen’s son, Ali Khan Tareen, to contest the by-election from NA-154, a National Assembly seat from Lodhran that fell vacant after the disqualification of his father on Supreme Court orders.
The move invited criticism on the party, which has been vehement in its censure of the two mainstream parties of the country, Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), for their “dynastic politics”.
Now that PTI’s own penchant for “dynastic politics” has surfaced, a show host for a private television channel asked a PTI leader, Shafqat Mehmood, some tough questions. He even played a clip of an interview of Imran Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Bokhari, in which he says, “If Jehangir Tareen’s son gets a ticket from the party, it would not be correct to say then that dynastic politics does not exist in PTI. We will have to say that it exists. No denying that.”
Mehmood argued that the party has taken a well thought out decision, keeping in mind the constituency’s dynamics. “We reached the conclusion that Ali Tareen is the best candidate for the seat,” he said, adding that they can’t “ignore the ground realities”.
He argued that it is one thing to give a ticket for an MNA or MPA seat but it’s an altogether different thing to give national leadership to your family members. According to him, “this is just a local seat”.
When asked about Ali Tareen’s position in his constituency and his political qualification, Mehmood replied: “Jehangir Tareen has worked a lot in that constituency. He has worked very hard and has welfare projects going on.”
So his best qualification is that he is JKT’s son, asked the show host. “Should we give the ticket to an outsider? What do you think?” Mehmood replied. “Are we so disqualified and negligible? He is the candidate there. We can’t bring someone from outside. That’s not how it works.”
