November 29, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1428

MUZAFFARGARH, Nov 28: Parting ways with the PML-Q, two former MPAs have turned down their tickets of the former ruling party and joined the PPP. Many other PML-Q leaders are visiting Clifton (Karachi) and Model Town (Lahore) to get the PPP or the PML-N tickets.

Former MPAs Qaswar Langrial (PP-257) and Allah Wasaya Leghari (PP-258) have joined the PPP. Besides, groups of parties have been meeting Benazir Bhutto to get ticket for NA-178.

The first PPP ticket was given to Jamshed Dasti, a union council nazim. Later, Malik Arbi Khar tried to get the ticket and now ex-state minister Engineer Shahid Jameel Qureshi, who was in jail in case of Kafila Siddiqui’s alleged murder, was trying to get the ticket for his brother Farooq Azam Qureshi, who is a retired army officer.

In NA-176, the situation is not different as the PML-Q party men are trying to get the PML-N ticket. Former district nazim Sultan Hunjra’s nephew got the PML-Q ticket for NA-176, but now he is trying to get ticket from the PML-N.

Sources said former MNA Mian Abbas Qureshi, who was rejected by PML-Q for ticket for this constituency, was also trying to get ticket from the PML-N.

Mian Mohsin Qureshi was a PPP candidate from NA-176 and NA-177, but now the party has asked him to contest from NA-176 and also instructed him not to field his wife, Khalida Mohsin, because the party would give her reserve seat.

Former governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar has decided not to contest the election this time round. Sources said Khar did not qualify under the graduation condition, something his son Malik Abdul Rehman Khar denied. At a press conference, he said his father was eligible to contest the polls.