TOBA TEK SINGH: The PPP has awarded its ticket for Gojra PP-118 by-poll to Chak 338-JB-based activist Asif Nazir Kamboh.

For the July 25 polls, the PPP awarded its ticket to former provincial minister Khalid Malik Tiwana and his wife Begum Sarwat Malik but both defected to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) before the allotment of election symbols. The couple is again supporting PTI nominee Asad Zaman Cheema.

PML-N’s Khalid Javed Warraich won election for both NA-111 and PP-118 seats in the July 25 polls and later vacated the provincial seat.

Some developments are making the by-election interesting.

The Tehreek Labaik Pakistan’s (TLP’s) Safdar Ali Wahla remained number four by securing 10,178 votes in the July 25 polls but this time the TLP has decided not to contest the by-election for this seat.

PML-N’s Amjad Ali Javed, who was defeated at PP-121 on July 25, also filed nomination papers for the PP-118 by election. Before filing his nomination papers he hoped he would get the PML-N ticket as he says that his former constituency PP 86’s 32 villages had been separated for July 25 polls under new delimitation and were included in PP 118. The PML-N, however, ignored his request and issued ticket to Gojra-based activist Mansoor Ahmad Bhangoo.

Another new thing in the by-election is that former MPA Bilal Asghar Warraich who won the seat in 2002, 2008 and 2013 polls is now contesting the by-election as an independent candidate.

He won the seat in 2013 on the ticket of the Pakistan National Muslim League, a party of his elder brother Amjad Ali Warraich. He also remained the number three in the July 25 polls on the same party’s ticket.

Sources close to the Warraich family said that it was a political trick of Bilal Warraich to fight the seat as an independent candidate. Sources added that recently when MNA Khalid Warraich’s wife Fauzia Warraich (also district council chairperson) filed her paper, Bilal Warraich announced supporting her with the condition that if her candidature was not restored by the Supreme Court, he would be the candidate of Khalid Warraich and the PML-N. The PML-N, however, issued ticket to Mr Bhangoo.

The Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) defeated July 25 polls candidate Usman Haider Bhalli, who gained 1,103 votes on July 25, is once again contesting the seat on the MMA ticket.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018