ISLAMABAD, JUNE 09 (DNA) – A rift has erupted as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ignored several new and old leaders during allotment of party tickets for upcoming general elections 2018.

According to details, Shahryar Afridi, Saifullah Niazi, Ali Mohammad Khan, Khurshid Kasuri, Waleed Iqbal, Shaukat Yousafzai and key person of Billion Tree Tsunami plan Ameen Aslam were deprived of the tickets.

Rasheed Gondal, Babar Awan and Murtaza Satti who recently joined PTI were also not given tickets.

On the other hand, PTI’s leader and former member of provincial assembly from Kasur Waqas Mokal has joined Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) while Abdur Rasheed Bhatti has also left PTI.

Earlier on Friday, PTI had announced candidates for 173 seats of the National Assembly and 290 candidates for provincial assembly seats.

Party chairman Imran Khan will contest election from five constituencies including NA-53, NA-35, NA-95, NA-131 and NA-243. Shah Mahmood Qureshi will contest election from NA-156 Multan, while party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry will contest election from NA-65 Jehlum. Former KP CM Pervaiz Khattak and Murad Saeed will contest election from NA-25 Noushehra and NA-4 Swat.

PTI issued tickets to 81 candidates in KP, while only 21 candidates for Sindh Assembly had been announced. As many as 23 candidates for Balochistan Assembly were announced, while the party tickets for Punjab’s 165 constituencies were issued.