As the general elections are only 30 days away, the PTI and PML-N, seemingly the two major opposing forces from Punjab are still stuck in the process of party tickets, which is not letting their party members to start a real electoral drive.

However, party sources from both the parties camp told this correspondent on Tuesday that they want to ascertain the strength of each other’s potential candidates and not in hurry to unveil their candidates for the general polls. When contacted PTI possible candidates regarding their tickets fate said, “we are sitting in Islamabad for the last few days waiting for a final reply, while our group members back in our constituencies are highly confused for starting a real electoral drive and in some areas supporters of more than two aspirants of party tickets have started low scale electoral activity, which will ultimately create fuss when tickets will be announced”.

Some strong PML-N contenders when reached, said, “we are in more difficult position than the PTI, as we have nearly six potential candidates in one constituency in some areas of the province”. Pervez Khattak, PTI Central Secretary General talking to TheNation over the issue said, “We are doing our best to final the lists of party candidates till Wednesday night and unveil our contenders till April 11th”. He claimed: party chairman, Imran Khan chairing party’s Parliamentary Board meeting is marking the appropriate candidates for the general polls and most probably he will complete the final marking till Wednesday night.

When asked about the earlier clearance of the heavyweights, Khattak said that no party ticket aspirant including the bigwigs could claim himself as party candidate till the unveiling of the final list. Confronting the query about the possible left outs from Lahore for party tickets, the PTI central leader said that the candidates appear in the final list would contest polls, while the left outs if desire to run as independents to build pressure on the party could face action for violating the party discipline.

Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, senior PML-N leader talking to this scribe insisted: we are not delaying the process for any reason other than that the PML-N have 3,200 applicants aspiring to get the tickets and it will take sometime to interview this big number of the party tickets aspirants. He claimed that the PML-N would comfortably face all its opponents in the general elections and it feels no pressure in any of the constituency. When asked about a date for unveiling the PML-N list of its candidates, he informed, “It will take few days to short list the final candidates, while I can say tentatively that the final list will be make public till April 17”.

The possible candidates of PTI and PML-N said that they would not be able to start a serious electoral drive if they get tickets in the second half of this month, which could give edge to some potential independents who have already started their campaigns.