RAWALPINDI: In a contest pre-determined by the PML-N’s brute majority, five aspirants for the mayor’s office of the garrison city just collected the nomination papers on Thursday but none submitted them.

They included PML-N’s Sardar Naseem, chosen by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Hamid Hussain Abbasi, also of the PML-N, Azher Iqbal Satti of PTI and PPP’s Raja Shahid Mehmood Khan Papu and Malik Anjum Farooq Paracha.

PML-N overwhelmingly dominates the electoral college with 57 members against PPP’s three, PTI’s two and Awami Muslim League of Sheikh Rashid one.

Friday is the last day for the submission of the papers for the contest under the new election schedule which had to be pulled back by one day - from December 9-10 to December 8-9 for submitting nomination papers and from December 11-12 to December 10-11 for scrutiny - in view of Eid Miladun Nabi holiday on December 12.

Raja Mushtaq Ahmed, Chaudhry Tariq Mehmood, Khalid Saeed Butt and Sheikh Mohammad Arshad, all belonging to the PML-N, are in the run for the office of the deputy mayor.

But Chaudhry Tariq might be the winner because the mayor-nominated Sardar Naseem told Dawn that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had chosen him for the office.

For the PPP, PTI and AML, the real contest will be for the position of the opposition leader in the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation.

Interestingly, two local PPP leaders are in the run for that position. Both of them are looking for support from the PTI and the AML.

“Anjum Farooq Paracha, brother of former city PPP president Amir Fida Paracha, is lobbying with Sheikh Rashid Ahmed,” a party insider told Dawn.

In the local bodies’ elections, Anjum Farooq Paracha had put up banners in support of Sheikh Rashid and Imran Khan.

In return, Mr Rashid did not field his candidate in the union council Paracha won, he said.

But since Raja Shahid is the PPP’s official nominee for the mayor’s post, the seat of opposition leader could be occupied by him. “We have three seats in the RMC. So we need the support of other opposition parties in the contest,” he told Dawn.

Raja Shahid claimed that the PTI’s two union council members were supporting him but was not sure about the support of Sheikh Rashid.

“Lal Haveli has always opposed PPP but former office-bearers of the PPP Rawalpindi city chapter supported Sheikh Rashid for their vested interests,” he said.

Sardar Naseem said he would submit the nomination papers on Friday.

Though Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar decided the party candidate for the deputy mayor’s office, “this time he consulted local PML-N leaders on the matter.”

Arsalan Hafeez’s name was also discussed but Hanif Abbasi and others opposed his nomination, according to a senior party leader who requested not to be named.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2016