December 06, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1428

MUZAFFARGARH, Dec 5: Former PML-Q’s member of the Provincial Assembly Syed Qaim Ali Shamsi has refused the ticket and decided to contest the Jan 8 elections either as an independent candidate or as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) candidate.

Mr Shamsi was elected MPA in 2002 from PP-261 and remained Auqaf parliamentary secretary till the dissolution of the assembly.

Talking to Dawn, Syed Ali Raza Shamsi, his brother and suspended district naib nazim, said the PML-Q had awarded the ticket to Qaim Shamsi which he turned down and now he would contest as an independent or would try to get the ticket of big parties like the PPP or the PML-N.

He said they had stood by the party for five years but the party ditched them when the Lahore High Court, Multan bench, suspended him for not cooperating with the district nazim.

Some PML-Q insiders, however, claim that the party had first awarded ticket to Mr Shamsi and later it awarded ticket to Ashiq Khan Gopang, a former member of the National Assembly. In the last month, when the chief minister Pervaiz Elahi visited Alipur, he awarded ticket to Mr Gopang and now Gopang’s son Amir Gopang was a candidate from the constituency.

Some union council nazims told Dawn that Mr Shamsi was interested in joining the group of former district nazim Qayyum Jatoi. Mr Jatoi is contesting against Mr Gopang from NA-180 as well as PP-261.

Now with Qaim Shamsi refusing the PML-Q ticket, those who turned the PML-Q tickets are: former state ministers Hina Rabbani Khar and Shahid Jameel Qureshi, MPAs Qaswar Langrial and Allah Wasaya Leghari and Senator Amjad Qureshi.

The sons of Nawab Nasrullah Khan and the Gurmani group are new entrants to the PML-Q and among the old allies only Abdullah Shah Bukhari and Sultan Hinjra groups are with the PML-Q.