FAISALABAD, Jan 26: The government has reportedly asked secret agencies to collect reports about elected Nazims, Naib Nazims and councillors of local councils who are taking keen interest in contesting the next general elections.

Sources told this correspondent here on Saturday that the government had received complaints that a good number of elected representatives were planning to contest the general elections from their respective areas from the platform of political parties. They also started motivating people about their election strategy and using influence in the government departments for the resolution of people’s problems to enhance their bank vote, they added.

“It has also been brought to the notice of government by the legal circles that motivation campaign of the elected representatives was against the rules and regulations because they had won the local bodies elections without any party affiliation,” source claimed.

According to them, the government was actively considering to form a policy bar members of local governments from taking part in the general elections for which legal formalities were being reviewed.

It may be noted that scores of Nazims and Naib Nazims having degrees of BA would contest the general elections from their respective constituencies because dozens of politicians left with no chance to take part in elections due to reforms announced by the government.

It is interesting to note that of the 18 MPAs elected on the PML(N) tickets in 1997 election from Faisalabad district, four cannot contest elections due to qualification condition. They are; Allah Yar Wattoo (PP-47), Mazhar Ali Gil (PP-49), Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool (PP-50) and Khwaja Muhammad Islam (PP-57). Moreover, former PML(N) MPAs Nawaz Kalyar, Safdar Shakir and Zahid Mahmood Goraya have reportedly decided to join the PML(QA).

The following PPP candidates who contested the 1997 general elections have also become ineligible for next elections due to education qualification condition:

Chaudhry Arshad (PP-43), Bakhat Bedar (PP-44), Tasnim Elahi (PP-46), Chaudhry Ilyas (PP-51), Munawar Ahmad (PP-53), Malik Sharif (PP-56), Syed Tahir Shah (PP-57), Rana Ikftikahr (PP-58), Ismail Seela (PP-59) and Raja Safdar (PP-6).