GUJRAT, July 11: The Union Council No 53 on Friday passed a no-confidence motion against Nazim Haji Nasir Mahmood, district secretary-general of the PML-N.

The motion was presented and passed by 13 members of the 21-member council at a meeting convened by the UC secretary.

The Zahoor Palace of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat lies in this union council. The Chaudhrys had allotted their party’s ticket to the Nazim office to Chaudhry Nadeem, son of former MC chairman Chaudhry Tufail during the March 2001 elections.

However, the seat was won by Haji Mahmood of the PML-N.

After unseating the Nazim, the councillors, led by Chaudhry Tufail, assembled at the Zahoor Palace where they met some PML-Q leaders.

Meanwhile, speaking at a joint press conference at Nawab House, local leaders of PPP and PML-N described the no-confidence move as political victimization.

Haji Mahmood said that the rebels had either been pressurized or bribed into switching their loyalties.

He alleged that the UC secretary was taken to the meeting at gunpoint.

He claimed that the no-trust motion against him did not have any constitutional value.

Former MPA Malik Hanif Awan, provincial vice-president of the PML-N, said that Haji Mahmood was being punished for refusing to join the PML-Q and withdraw his support for the Sharif family.