TOBA TEK SINGH: Influential PML-N groups at the district council level are making efforts to seek the central leadership support for their chairmen candidates.

There are four strong candidates, including Begum Fauzia Khalid Warraich, a UC chairperson elected from Gojra. She is the wife of Gojra MNA Chaudhry Khalid Javed Warraich.

The other potential candidate is ex-MPA and Rajana UC chairman Sardar Masood Gadhi. He is the brother of MPA Col Sardar Ayub Gadhi retired.

The third expected candidate is Chaudhry Riazullah, a UC chairman elected from Toba tehsil. He is the cousin of Kamalia-Pirmahal ruling party MNA Chaudhry Asadur Rehman and ex-supreme court judge Khalil Ramday.

The fourth candidate is chairman of a Kamalia UC Akhtar Abbas Kirmani. He is a former tehsil nazim and is expected to be supported by Kamalia PML-N MPA Begum Nazia Raheel Gujjar.

PML-N has 42 UC chairmen in 85-member district council, PTI 15, National Muslim League of ex-MNA Amjad Warraich two while independents are 26.

An associate of Pir Ali Baba (the head of an independent group) claims that the 10 chairmen elected from Kamalia and Pirmahal tehsils are backing this camp.

Pir Ali Baba, also a UC chairman, is son of ex-MPA Pir Ibrar Hussain and nephew of former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani. If PTI makes an alliance with Pir Ali Baba and two chairmen elected from National Muslim League join this would-be-alliance plus some independents, this group may field ex-district nazim Chaudhry Muhammad Ashfaq or Pir Ali Baba for district council chairman slot.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015