August 23, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 9, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 22: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is still looking for worthy candidates for the national or provincial assemblies in at least five districts of Punjab - Bhakkar, Mianwali, Khushab, Chakwal and Bahawalpur. The party is also searching for ‘suitable’ candidates for many national and provincial seats in several other districts, including Hafizabad, Jhelum and Narowal, for the upcoming general elections.

“The party is faced with a dearth of what we call ‘winning’ candidates in many places in the province,” a PPP leader, who refused to give his name, told Dawn here on Wednesday.

The next best option are candidates who promise a tough fight at least and the PPP leader said that even that variety is hard to come by. “The situation persists for much of Punjab, excluding Multan and upper parts of the province.”

He named 18 districts where the provincial party has so far not been able to identify the list of candidates totally or partially. These districts are: D.G. Khan, Khanewal, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Khanewal, Layyah, Chishtian and Lodhran in the southern Punjab, Bhakkar, Khushab, Mianwali, and Sargodha in the Thal region, Chakwal, Jhelum, and Attock in the northern Punjab and Narowal and Hafizabad in the central Punjab.

A senior Punjab PPP leader admitted that the party had so far not been able to identify even a single candidate for any of the national and provincial assembly seat in five districts -- Bhakkar, Mianwali, Khushab, Chakwal and Bahawalpur. But, he said, the party had either shortlisted or is in the process of shortlisting its candidates for the national and provincial assemblies in the remaining 13 districts. “Frankly speaking, there are certain districts where we don’t have suitable candidates for a few national assembly and some provincial assembly seats but we would soon recommend names for these constituencies.”

Another senior provincial party leader said that the PPP has shortlisted “front-runners for the upcoming elections against 60-70 per cent national and provincial seats.”

“We will shortly finish the process of selection and send our recommendations to Chairperson Benazir Bhutto for approval,” he said.

The PPP leaders ascribe the difficulty in identifying winning or strong candidates in various parts of the province to the fact that most “established political families, groups and individuals in the remoter, rural areas away from the major urban centres of the province have joined the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) over the last five years to avoid persecution by their rivals who were already with the ruling party.”

“You may liken the current situation of the ruling party to a jug overflowing with water,” a PPP leader says. “But as the general election approaches nearer, many from among these groups and individuals who are not given tickets by the PML will break away to contest the polls from the platform of some other political party or as independent candidates. We hope that many of them will join the PPP.”