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| September 12, 2005 | Monday | Sha’aban 7, 1426 |
Unease in ruling party on eve of nazim election
RAWALPINDI, Sept 11: Desperation looked creeping into government ranks on the eve of the third phase of local body elections of filing of nominations for district nazims. After the nominations of nazims of city district government and eight towns of the Rawalpindi district are filed on Monday and Tuesday, the process of scrutiny, display of final lists and appeals would begin.
Elections are to be held on October 6.
Meanwhile, the contestants were busy campaigning. Their banners have been put up in different parts of the city though voting in this phase of the LB polls is restricted to the electoral college comprising nazims, naib nazims and councillors of union councils elected through a direct vote last month.
The electoral college for the city district nazim consists of 2,275 votes, whereas for the town nazims the electoral college would be the respective union councils in that constituency.
Nervousness was evident in the ruling party’s camp as Punjab’s local body minister Raja Basharat at an election meeting tried to brow-beat the elected union council nazims, naib nazims and councillors by telling them that the Punjab government may not provide special funds for the district if their candidate Raja Javed Ikhlas did not win.
Moreover, the language being used by ministers against the opponents in their speeches at election meetings betrayed desperation. Some voters were said to be openly telling the provincial functionaries running Mr Ikhlas’s campaign that they wouldn’t vote for their candidate.
However, the ruling party has been successful in winning over some councillors in Murree Town with “various incentives”. Murree Town had been swept by the PML(N)-backed Jamhooriat Nawaz and Jamaat Islami-backed Al-Khidmat groups in the UC elections.
Last-minute entry of former district Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani into the race for the city district nazim has given a totally new dimension to the whole election tussle as changes are imminent in the standings of various groups.
The other party to suffer at his hands is Awam Dost panel of Pakistan Peoples Party as almost half a dozen nazims, naib nazims and several councillors elected from this group only from Rawal Town have assured Mr Kiani of their support.
Jamhooriat Nawaz and Al-Khidmat groups support Mr Kiani to be nominated as the consensus candidate of opposition groups for city district nazim.
Although, Awam Dost have nominated unheard Col (retired) Shabbir of Kallar Syedan as their candidate for city district nazim with Maj (retired) Iftikhar Kiani as his covering candidate, the group doesn’t look too serious about this slot.
In Rawal Town, consisting of the main city areas, so far it looks the contest would be between Sardar Nasim of Jamhooriat Nawaz, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq of Lal Haveli and a candidate from Awam Dost, which is yet undecided whether Mian Khurram Rasool or Anjum Farooq Piracha should be their candidate.
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