FAISALABAD, Sept 13: Political heavyweights and close associates of parliamentarians filed nomination papers for the City District and town nazim slots on Tuesday.

For the special seats of women, peasants and minorities, over 1,000 candidates are in the race.

Ten candidates filed papers for the City District top slot. They are PML MNA Ghulam Rasool Sahi (supported by the ruling party), former PML-N MNA Ch Sher Ali, former PML-N MNA Rana Zahid Tauseef and former PML-N MPA Rana Muhammad Afzal, PPP’s Ijaz Ahmed Virk and Sardar Zafar Hussain and independents Amjad Rabbani, Zafar Zulqurnain Sahi, Tariq Aziz and Raoof Tariq.

The PPP and PML-N fielded candidates because the two opposition parties are yet to reach a consensus.

For the Jinnah Town nazimship, former PML-N MPA Khawaja Muhammad Islam; Shahzad Malik, brother of sitting PM-N MPA Muhammad Nawaz Malik; Raja Adnan, nephew of sitting PML-N MNA Nadir Pervaiz; Saeed Iqbal, nephew of former MNA Talib Hussain; former MPA Malik Muhammad Din, Razaq Malik, Muhammad Mushtaq and Rafique Anjum are in the race.

For the Lyallpur Town, PPP-backed Zafar Iqbal Nagra, ruling party nominee Rana Zahid Mehmood, MMA-supported Umer Farooq; Shahid Rafique, Muhammad Amin and Zaheer Nagra have filed their nomination papers.

Three candidates — Ali Akhtar Khan from the ruling party, Zulfiqar Inayyat of the PML-N and an independent, Rana Zulfiqar Ali, are in the race for the Madina Town nazim slot.

For the Iqbal Town, Khalid Saeed Gill of the PML-N, Sajjad Haider Cheema of the PML, Riaz Seela and Khalid Gulzar Malik of the PPP, and an independent, Sajjad Ahmed Sajid, filed their nomination papers for Nazim seat.

For Jaranwala Town, Rana Abdul Rehnman, Rai Akram Kharal, Rana Khalid, Muneer Khan, Akram Chaudhry, Rai Ijaz Ahmed, Abu Bakar, Rana Adrees, Irfan Asghar, Tariq Sarwar and Amir Aslam are candidates. One to one contest will be held for Tandlianwala Town nazim between former nazim Ali Gohar Baloch and PPP’s Ch Muneer Ahmed.

For Chak Jhumra Town, former nazim Fawad Cheema, Imran Cheema and Jawed Iqbal are in the race. For Samundri, Shah Nawaz, Rana Farooq Saeed Khan, Ghulam Rasool, Irfan Syed and Ch Abdul Majeed filed their nomination papers.