ISLAMABAD, July 30: True to changing its mind at the spur of the moment, the PML-N leadership awarded the party ticket to lawyer Mohammad Ashraf Gujjar to contest the by-election in the NA-48 constituency of the city at the very last moment on Tuesday.

Political pundits and the media were baffled by the choice as they had bet on the candidature of Hanif Abbasi based on the ‘evident’ behind the scene moves by the party leadership in the recent past.

Indeed, Hanif Abbasi himself told Dawn after Tuesday afternoon’s surprising announcement: “I had filed my nomination paper against my wishes, and only on the instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on phone from China.”

But even after dropping the ephedrine scandal-tainted Mr Abbasi, with his heavy defeat in the May 11 general elections in his Rawalpindi home constituency of NA-56, like a hot potato, the PML-N leaders did not reach the final choice without high drama. Equally tarnished local PML-N leader Anjum Aqeel was seen in the district court, trying to convince the returning officer that his lawyer had mistakenly withdrawn his nomination papers for the NA-48 seat as he never advised him to do so. But the judge was not amused.

“It is not a general store where one could return the sold items, it is a court of law and if you are not happy with the decision you can go to the high court,” he told Mr Aqeel, who represented NA-48 in the previous National Assembly.

Though insisting that his lawyer withdrew his nomination papers without his consent, and feeling hurt at the rejection of his request for restoring his candidacy, he took the advice of the returning officer to appeal the Islamabad High Court against the rejection.

Unfortunately, the party leadership changed its mind in the meantime and the real estate tycoon was saved the effort, if not the expense.

“Since the party leadership has awarded the ticket to advocate Gujjar, my client will not file the appeal,” his counsel Anwaar Dar told reporters.

Information Minister Pervez Rashid, however, blamed the media for the fiasco, or “confusion” in his words which be accepted as he was a member of the PML-N parliamentary board that chose the party’s candidates for the by-elections set for August 22.

Asked by Dawn why the party left its choice for NA-48 to the very last minute, he said: “We have our own timetables for taking decisions. The confusion was there only because of the speculations in the media.”

Lucky Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf Gujjar, who had rebelled against the PML-N’s directive to all its 25 candidates, except Hanif Abbasi, to withdraw their nomination papers on July 26, will now be riding the party’s tiger and laughing all the way to battle with PTI’s stout Asad Omar on August 22.

The background of the baffling events is that when, after getting the party ticket, Hanif Abbasi started campaigning he received negative response in the suburbs of the federal capital party colleague Anjum Aqeel held sway.

Influence wielders of Golra Sharif, and other villages, refused to cooperate with Mr Abbasi. Some of them even threatened to boycott the elections because of him.

And the once aggressive Mr Abbasi was left with no choice but to quit.

“I requested the party leadership to give the ticket to someone else and finally they accepted my request,” he said on the momentous Tuesday, hoping lawyer Gujjar would regain NA-48 to the PML-N.During the May 11 general elections, PTI candidate Makhdoom Javed Hashmi had won the seat by securing 73,878 votes against PML-N Anjum Aqeel Khan’s 52,205 votes while Mian Mohammad Aslam bagged 25,010 and Faisal Sakhi Butt 9,177 votes. Mr Hashmi later opted to retain his Multan seat and vacated NA-48.

After today’s development, there are total 22 candidates from the political parties, including the PTI, PPP, JUI-F, PPP (Shaheed Bhutto), Pakistan Justice Party, Pakistan Freedom Party and Jamaat Al-Kalam.

After withdrawal of Mian Aslam of the JI, the prominent candidates included Asad Umer of the PTI and Faisal Sakhi Butt of the PPP. They have already started the election campaign.

The constituency comprises about 70 per cent urban and 30 per cent rural areas of Islamabad. The total voters in the constituency are 282,850 - 150,343 males and 132,507 female.