March 06, 2008	Thursday	Safar 27 ,1429

SHEIKHUPURA, March 5: The district naib nazim has convened the district council’s session on Friday (tomorrow) on opposition’s requisition for voting on a no-trust motion tabled by it against District Nazim Mian Jalil Ahmad Sharaqpuri.

Earlier, a no-trust motion tabled by the opposition members, now being led by PML-N MNA-elect Rana Tanvir Husain, suffered a defeat by just eight votes on Monday when it could not muster support of two thirds majority of the 143-member house and only 83 members voted in favour of the motion.

After suffering a narrow defeat, the opposition members have redesigned their political manoeuvring and now claim that they have acquired the required 94-vote strength under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance to oust the former PML-N ‘turncoat’ MNA.

After the Monday defeat, around 35 members again submitted a requisition on which district council’s convener and naib nazim Malik Rahmat Ali Dogar convened the house to meet on Friday and deliberate on the no-trust motion tabled by the opposition.

Jalil Sharqpuri had defeated the PML-Q’s founding president Mian Azhar on a PML-N ticket in the 2002 general election from NA-132. However, he later joined the PML-Q and became district nazim in the 2005 local body polls.

Rana Tanvir Husain has returned to the National Assembly from NA-132 in the Feb 18 general election. He is eyeing wiping out Jalil Sharqpuri from the district’s political arena and for this purpose he is all supporting Rana Abbas, the opposition leader in the district council, to muster required strength to overthrow Jalil Sharqpuri.

When contacted, the district nazim said the opposition would not succeed in defeating him. Jalil Sharqpuri said he was being subjected to political victimisation and the whole procedure being adopted to de-seat him lacked transparency and justification. His rivals are, however, confident that this time they would be able to defeat Jalil Sharqpuri convincingly.