LAHORE: The Pakistar Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Lahore has shortlisted candidates for 2( seats of the upcoming local bod: elections in Cantonment on Apri 25. A final candidates` list will bc issued shortly.

The Lahore PTI office receivec some 100 applications from th( aspirants for 10 seats each ir Cantt Board and Walton Board.

PTI Lahore President Abdu Aleem Khan and senior vice-pres identShoaibSiddiquiinterviewec the ennelirintoc in the llaht of roeLAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Lahore, has shortlisted candidates for 20 seats of the upcoming local body elections in Cantonment on April 25. A final candidates` list will be issued shortly.

The Lahore PTI office received some 100 applications from the aspirants for 10 seats each in Cantt Board and Walton Board.

PTI Lahore President Abdul Aleem Khan and senior vice-presidentShoaibSiddiquiinterviewed the candidates in the light of rec-ommendations by the office-bearers of local organisations, former NA and PA candidates and Lahore district office-bearers.

Aleem says the party decided to bring forward the elected people as well as those attached with the party for the long time as its candidates for the local body elections scheduled for April 25.

He said the Cantonment area is home to educated people and they are PTI`s vote bank, adding that the PML-N would again face humiliating defeat like that of general elections, which were in the meanwhile rigged.

Mr Siddiqui said PTPs Lahorechapter had completed its preparations for the local body elections in the Cantt Town and had also launched a door-to-door campaign in all union councils in the Cantt Town. `Now, we are in a better position to field PTI candidates, as the PML-N candidates had already been announced,` he said.

PTI PUNJAB: PTI Punjab President Ejaz Chaudhry has called development works launched in the Cantonment areas pre-poll rigging and added that the PML-N was again up for rigging local body elections like general elections.

In a statement issued here onTuesday, Mr Chaudhry said the Punjab government had launched development works before the Election Commission of Pakistan`s announcement about the local body election schedule.

`It`s in the PML-N blood not to play fair,` he said, and demanded that the ECP was constitutionally responsible to hold free, fair and transparent elections and thus needed to stop PML-N to `buy` the elections through development schemes.

General-Secretary Dr Yasmin Rashid said public money was being invested to buy votes in Cantonment areas. She fearedthat if this continued, free, fair and transparent elections would be unlikely in Cantonments, which would be another setback to democratic norms. She said the Punjab government was making the mockery of its promise to do electoral reforms, as they knew that if they did not rig the elections they would lose.

Information-Secretary Andleeb Abbas said rules and procedures were being violated for initiating work on these development schemes before formal announcement of election schedule and called the practice as an outright pre-poll rigging. She said the twoyears` miserable performance of the PML-N government had proven that the only way they could come into government was by rigging the elections. She said this money should be spent on health and education of the masses. Instead, she said, these billion rupees disbursements in the name of `development schemes` would be financed through the development funds allocated to the parliamentarians, who would make millions out of these inflated projects. She urged the chief election commissioner to take notice and stop these funds immediately.