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| October 5, 2005 | Wednesday | Sha’aban 30, 1426 |
Warnings fail to deter PML ‘rebels’
MULTAN, Oct 4: Climax of the local government polls have reached with opposition crying foul play, alleging violation of the code of conduct on the part of Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi who not only nominated candidates for the top district and tehsil slots but reportedly urged the electorate to vote for them if they wanted development funds for their areas.
The CM paid whirlwind visits to the areas including Bahawalpur and Sahiwal districts in southern Punjab where his nominees were feeling the heat of competition.
Talking to the electoral college members in Sahiwal on Sunday last, he was reported to have linked the uplift of the areas to the success of his nominees in the third and the final phase of the LG polls being held on Thursday.
Giving a word of warning to those ruling PML people who are vying against his nominees for the top slots to withdraw, he was quoted to have said that voting the opposition candidates would tantamount to fritter away the mandate because they had nothing to offer viz-a-viz development (as they are not in the power).
However, his warnings have so far fallen on the deaf ear of the ruling party renegades as none of them has withdrawn his candidature while only a day has left before the polling day.
Former district nazim Rai Hasan Nawaz is posing a serious challenge to the CM nominee Naveed Aslam Lodhi, nephew and son-in-law of provincial agriculture minister Ashraf Lodhi, for the Sahiwal district top slot. Former federal minister Shahid Mehdi Naseem is said to be way ahead of the CM’s nominee Mumtaz Khan Khitchi in the race for Vehari district top slot.
Rao Naseem Hashim being backed by the ruling party MPAs Dr Farrukh Javed, Kashif Chishti and Chaudhry Javed is all set to make the election for Pakpattan district top slot a hard nut to crack for the CM’s man, former district nazim Amjad Joiya. Ruling party MNA Akhtar Khan Kanju has fielded Mian Shafiq Arain for the Lodhran district top slot against the CM’s candidate former district nazim Abdul Rehman Kanju.
In Dera Ghazi Khan, a couple of ruling party MPAs, Mir Badshah Kasrani and Sardar Fateh Muhammad Bozdar, and a number of office-bearers are opposing Jamal Leghari, the official candidate for the district top slot. Jamal Leghari is said to be facing an uphill task to make it to the zila nazim office against Maqsood Leghari, a seasoned local body campaigner and cousin of his father Sardar Farooq Leghari. Maqsood Leghari had been elected the Dera district council chairman in 1979 and 1983.
In Rajanpur, Federal minister Awais Leghari and ruling party MPs Jaffar Leghari, Amanullah Dreshak and Ghizali Raheem Pitafi are reportedly uncomfortable in supporting the CM’s nominee Raza Dreshak, the son of PML chief whip in the National Assembly Sardar Nasrullah Dreshak and brother of Punjab finance minister Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak. Raza, however, is being rated by the analysts as a definite winner. The alliance of the chiefs of Mazari and Leghari tribes could not muster enough support in the formation of electorate needed to capture the top district slot. Insiders say that the Legharis are embittered with the central and provincial leadership of the ruling party on account of the alleged use of government machinery against their candidates in the first phase of the local polls held on Aug 18.
Since dissolving the Benazir government in 1996, former president Farooq Leghari and his group in the local politics had been enjoying unequivocal sway in matters related to Dera and Rajanpur districts. It may be recalled that in 1997 the then CM Mian Shahbaz Sharif had to hold up formation of his cabinet for over a month because he wanted to award a portfolio to his loyal Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa but arch tribal rival Sardar Leghari was opposed to the idea. “But it seems that the Legharis’ honeymoon with the powers that be in the country has now been over,” a political analyst remarked.
The CM has nominated Begum Tehmina Dasti, the only woman candidate vying for the top district slot in the province, for the Muzaffargarh district nazim office after ditching his initial candidate former district nazim Sultan Hinjra. She is the daughter of veteran politician Sardar Amjad Hameed Dasti.
PPP MNA Qayyum Jatoi is also vying for the Muzaffargarh top slot and is said to be the only candidate in southern Punjab from among the opposition parties who has the potential to make it to the victory stand.
Hoisting white flag, he had stated in a recent statement that if elected he would not take the course of confrontation with the government as the local polls were being held on non-party basis. It has yet to be known that whether his sentiments are reciprocated by the corners concerned but his spin doctors are describing as a positive gesture the cancellation of the CM’s scheduled visit to the district.
In Bahawalpur, a majority of the ruling party MPs are supporting Sahibzada Umer Daud Abbasi against the official candidate, former district nazim Tariq Basheer Cheema.
In Rahim Yar Khan, the CM ditched former district nazim Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood to support Rafiq Haider Leghari, a PPP stalwart until recently. Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood’s decision not to jump into the arena clearly suggests that tactically he has conceded the defeat. It may be added here that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is the CM on the basis of a provincial assembly seat he won with the help of Mehmood in Rahim Yar Khan in the last general elections.
The CM has to nominate PPP’s Bahawalpur division chief MNA Mian Mumtaz Matiana for the Bahawalnagar district top slot under his agenda of broadening the base of his party by taking potential people into its fold.
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