After PML-N's foot-dragging, Nisar to contest polls as independent candidate

ISLAMABAD: With the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leadership dragging its feet to allot party ticket to disgruntled leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for the July 25 polls, he has decided to fight the electoral battle as an independent candidate, ARY News reported.  

Sources said the maverick PML-N leader has decided to run in the polls as an independent candidate after the party leadership’s foot-dragging over awarding him election ticket.

It was reported lately that PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif, who is also president of the party, have been at odds over the matter as the former insisted that Nisar should not be given election ticket.

A day earlier, Nisar submitted his nominations papers to a returning officer at the Rawalpindi office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for NA-59 Rawalpindi, NA-63 Taxila and Punjab Assembly’s PP-10 and PP-12.

His close aide Shaikh Aslam submitted the papers on his behalf as he was unable to drive to the ECP office owing to severe backache. The returning officer, however, asked him to appear on June 13 for scrutiny of his nomination papers.

Nisar fell out Sharif’s favour when the former became an outspoken opponent of the party’s line of action in the wake of the Panama Papers and the latter’s sever criticism of state institutions after his ouster from the office.

The PML-N leader often complained of the party leadership’s not inviting him to high-level meetings and taking him in the loop while taking important decisions.