LAHORE, March 28: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz central parliamentary board could not complete its task of finalising its candidates in Punjab as deliberations for the purpose continued for the third consecutive day on Thursday.

Not a single nominee for Lahore’s 13 National Assembly and 25 Punjab Assembly seats could be decided while supporters of various contenders clashed with each other at the party’s secretariat in Model Town.

Discussions on nominations for Lahore seats were to start at 3:30 in the afternoon as unlike other districts, presidents and general secretaries of each provincial constituency of Lahore district had been invited to the board meeting.

The meeting formally began only when Nawaz Sharif made his appearance at 6pm and by that time a heated debate had taken place among hopefuls and their supporters (presidents and general secretaries), an insider told Dawn.

The party president asked the officials who were not after tickets for themselves should speak first, the insider said, adding PP-149 president Iqbal Gujjar took the floor and suggested that only locals should be given tickets instead of those whose native town was other than Lahore.

He was endorsed by Yasir Niazi, general secretary of the same constituency. This led to second round of an intense discussion and Nawaz avoided making nominations final and seeing emotional mood of the participants he left the scene.

Soon after coming out of the meeting room, the rivals came from words to blows and Imran Mughal, a stated supporter of former MPA from PP-149 Rana Mashhood, was badly injured.

The injured Mughal alleged that supporters of Lahore chapter chief Pervaiz Malik and secretary-general Khwaja Imran Nazir had attacked him for speaking in favour of Mashhood.

The duo denies the charge claiming that proponents of Mashhood clashed with each other and allege that one Ghulam Abbas Sial had hit Mughal.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary board is indecisive on certain constituencies outside Lahore. Like, NA-101 (Gujranwala), where Hamid Nasir of the PML-Likeminded is an aspirant. It is also learnt that Sumeera Malik, who had returned to the National Assembly from a Khushab seat in the 2008 polls, is being asked to choose a Mianwali seat this time.

Opinion

Editorial

Digital growth
Updated 25 Apr, 2024

Digital growth

Democratising digital development will catalyse a rapid, if not immediate, improvement in human development indicators for the underserved segments of the Pakistani citizenry.
Nikah rights
25 Apr, 2024

Nikah rights

THE Supreme Court recently delivered a judgement championing the rights of women within a marriage. The ruling...
Campus crackdowns
25 Apr, 2024

Campus crackdowns

WHILE most Western governments have either been gladly facilitating Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, or meekly...
Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...