RAWALPINDI: After victory in 38 of the 45 union councils (UCs) in the garrison city, the PML-N is in a comfortable position to accommodate its workers on the reserved seats of women in each of the UCs and the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC).

Under the local government law, there are two seats reserved for women in each UC and 15 in the RMC.

However, a local leader of the ruling party claimed that instead of the party workers, senior politicians were trying to adjust their own relatives on the reserved seats.

There are two women reserved seats in each of 45 UCs and 15 in municipal corporation

He said some local leaders who lost the local government elections wanted to remain part of the local government by inducting their close relatives on the reserved seats.

The PML-N has already sent two MNAs and one senator to the current parliament from one family. “Senator Najma Hameed and MNA Tahira Aurangzeb are sisters while MNA Marriyum Aurangzeb is the daughter of Tahira Aurangzeb. So there are three members of parliament from one house at the moment.”

He said the same situation would emerge in the RMC and the union councils. Mohammad Tanveer, who contested the elections as an independent candidate against the party policy, has applied for a woman reserved seat for his wife, the PML-N leader added.

He said Mirza Mansoor Baig, Malik Sultan and others had started lobbying for getting shares in the reserved seats of women for their relatives.

After getting a majority in the local government elections, the ruling party faced problems in filling the reserved seats.

“Confronted with the situation, the PML-N leadership decided to invite applications for the reserved seats to avoid divisions within the party,” he said.

When contacted, PML-N metropolitan president Sardar Naseem said they would not allocate tickets for reserved seats to relatives of the local leaders.

He said party workers would be given preference in the selection of the candidates, adding all decisions in this regard would be taken by PML-N Punjab president Shahbaz Sharif.

However, he admitted that there were some reports that people who lost the elections wanted to adjust their relatives in the municipal corporation.

He said the party had sought applications for the reserved seats as well as deputy mayors and fixed December 20 as the last date for their submission.

The applications for the deputy mayors would be sent to Lahore and those for the reserved seats would be collected at the district or city organisation level.

He said before the elections the party had issued tickets to the candidates in a transparent manner and would adopt the merit policy to accommodate its workers.

On the other hand, the PTI and PPP failed to start the process for the selection of reserved seat members.

“PPP has not invited applications for the reserved seats. With three chairmen, it will be difficult for us to accommodate our people on the reserved seats. We may be able to adjust one or two of our workers on the reserved seats so we are taking it lightly,” said PPP city spokesman Shujaat Haider Naqvi.

The chairman of the PTI election committee, Arif Abbasi MPA, said his party would not field any candidate.

He said the PTI failed to get votes and with just two members it would be difficult for the party to participate in the reserved seats’ election.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2015