Niaz Ullah Khan Niazi, who presided over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s intra-party elections on Saturday, has rejected Akbar S. Babar’s criticism of the polls.

Speaking in a TV interview on Geo News on Saturday, Niazi confirmed that Babar is still a member of the party but had not even tried to contest election even though he was on the voter list.

Niazi said that he was given one-panel lists for the elections and no one apart from the candidates who won unooposed had even tried to file nomination papers.

He added that he had not tried to stop anyone from contesting the elections including Babar who he said had arrived simply to record a video at the party secretariat.

Niazi accused of trying to ‘sabotage’ the elections according to a plan.

He added that if Babar had approached him directly instead of trying to create ‘hype’ he would have tried to resolve the issue.

Read: Gohar elected PTI chairmain unopposed, explains his position

Niazi said that the PTI was being pushed out of the general elections but expressed confidence that the party would be able to contest elections on the bat symbol it has tradidionally used.

On Saturday, Barrister Gohar Khan had been elected PTI’s new chairman in the intra-party election held in Peshawar.

In response, Akbar S Babar, an old member of the party had described the elections as a ‘farce’.

“It was a drama in the name of democracy. There is no concept of caretaker in the party’s constitution,” he said during a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.