LAHORE: The Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), faced a setback on Thursday as the PML-N allocated them only a limited number of seats for the next month’s general elections.

The Sharifs’ party has announced its candidates for most National and Punjab assembly seats across the province, favouring electables from the south and PTI defectors.

In some constituencies, some potential PML-N candidates protested against the leadership for depriving them of tickets to oblige “turncoats” and others by compromising on its so-called principles.

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who helped the PML-N-led coalition in the ouster of Imran Khan in 2022, is accommodated with just four seats, two each for the National and Punjab assemblies. The PML-N left NA-64 and PP-31 Gujrat open for Salik and Shafey, sons of Shujaat Hussain.

Interestingly, the PML-Q seems content with this arrangement, perhaps taking solace in the IPP’s treatment at the hands of PML-N.

The PML-N has left seven National and 11 Punjab constituencies open for IPP’s top leaders, including Jahangir Khan Tareen (from Multan), Aleem Khan (Lahore), Amir Kiyani (Islamabad), Ghulam Sarwar (Taxila), Awn Chaudhry (Lahore), Nauman Langrial (Sahiwal).

The PML-N has also refused to accommodate Ms Awan on NA-70 Sialkot and awarded a ticket to party stalwart Armaghan Subhani.

A PML-N insider said that had the Sharifs not had the pressure of the powers that be, they would not even have given that number of seats to the IPP. Interestingly, the IPP had initially sought over 100 NA and PA seats from the PML-N, which it had termed a “non-serious” demand.

The other major issue the IPP may face in the constituencies it secured tickets from PML-N in seat adjustment is whether the latter’s voters will vote for the former’s candidates in the Feb 8 polls.

Talal Chaudhry, who had the backing of the party chief organiser Maryam Nawaz, was made to sacrifice for a PTI deserter, Malik Nawab Sher Waseer.

The party sources said that the Sharifs had promised the dejected Mr Talal a Senate ticket.

On NA-77 Gujranwala, former MNA Mehmood Bashir Virk, who has the backing of the Maryam group, got the party ticket while the party’s deputy secretary general Attaullah Tarar, who was keen to contest from his hometown seat, was adjusted at NA-127 in Lahore against PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Earlier, in the by-polls in Punjab in 2022, the PML-N had claimed that the PTI deserters who had its backing lost to Mr Khan’s PTI because PML-N workers would not campaign for them and its supporters stayed away from casting votes in their favour.

Notable among those who failed to get PML-N’s tickets are Daniyal Aziz from Narowal, Saud Majid from Bahawalpur and Talal Chaudhry from Jaranwala.

PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal prevailed on Mr Aziz and got two tickets from Narowal for NA-76 and PP-56 seats.

Mr Aziz has announced contesting independently on NA-75, from where the PML-N has awarded a ticket to Chaudhry Anwaarul Haq. Mr Aziz said his wife would also contest independently for a provincial assembly seat in Narowal.