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| September 13, 2005 | Tuesday | Sha’aban 8, 1426 |
Punjab sports minister Shahani resigns
LAHORE, Sept 12: Naeemullah Khan Shahani resigned as the Punjab sports minister on Monday in protest against “large scale rigging” in the local elections and PML backing for his rival camp for the Bhakhar district nazim slot.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Shahani said the scale of rigging carried out to get desired results had made him take the extreme step.
“I always tried to implement President Musharraf’s policy of good governance but since I, as a minister, failed to stop the Niwani group from using government machinery in the local elections, I have no right to stay in the office,” he said.
The minister told a questioner that he had conveyed his decision to Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.
He alleged that the Niwanis, headed by Saeed Akbar, the provincial minister for jails, had used entire government machinery to win the elections.
At the Mani union council, he added, the election process stared at 6pm and continued till 2am. He also showed a packet containing ‘fake’ ballot papers with the result sheet which he got from the Bangra UC. Shahani said that he had brought this into the notice of PML president Ch Shujaat Hussain and the chief minister but instead of listening to him they nominated one of the Niwanis for the district nazim slot which was intolerable for him.
He claimed that his group enjoyed majority in the 42 union councils of the district but still an opponent had been nominated for the top Bhakkar slot. Shahani, it may be added, has been lobbying for his father to become Bhakkar district nazim.
“We have won 225 seats out of 546 in the 42 union councils of the district while 73 independents are also with us, raising our strength to 298,” he claimed.
Shahani also alleged that his rivals had been involved in illegal activities. In this regard, he said, a case against Rashid Akbar Khan Niwani, the brother of Saeed Akbar Niwani, had been registered for furnishing a fake degree of BA with a nomination paper for contesting PP-49 Bhakkar-III elections in 2002. He said that the case was registered on the direction of then additional sessions judge, Bhakhar.
He added that the BA degree which Rashid furnished to the returning officer had fake roll number of 34291, with registration number 77-Z-293. But, according to the Punjab University record, only 30184 candidates appeared in 1977.
He said a complaint was submitted to the returning officer. On it, Rashid filed an application with the returning officer seeking withdrawal of his nomination papers. The returning officer while returning the papers permitted the complainant to file a legal case against Rashid.
Shahani, who made headlines when he was abducted by a tribal from Fata some two years ago and was later released in mysterious circumstances, has not been on friendly terms with sports secretary Arshad Bhatti who by-passed him on a number of occasions.
Meanwhile, provincial minister for jails Saeed Akbar Niwani rejected Shahani’s allegations. “His group suffered a shameful defeat in locals elections due to his corruption and his involvement in heinous trade of stolen vehicles,” he alleged.
In a press statement, the minister said if Shahani’s accusations of rigging in the elections were true, he wouldnot have waited for 17 days.
“It is a fact that Shahani filed no complaint in this regard with the returning officer or the election commission on the election day or the day after”, he said.
“There are 17 union councils in Shahani’s constituency out of which 13 have been won by Niwani group and four by Muslim League (Nawaz group)”, he said.
Niwani said that two uncles of Shahani had lost by a wide margin in Katchi Shahani and Mulanwali UCs.
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