LAHORE: While the Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf is indecisive about fielding a candidate against renegade Javed Hashmi in the next month’s by-election in NA-149 (Multan), the PML-N is facing pressure from its workers from the constituency to announce its candidate.

The Pakistan People’s Party, on the other hand, has also declared it will field its candidate against Mr Hashmi, dashing the hopes of the veteran politician for garnering support of the opposition party in return for the ‘disclosures’ he made about PTI leadership’s alleged designs against democracy.

The PML-N leadership had hinted at supporting Hashmi in the by-election after his ‘democratic stance’ of revealing a ‘conspiracy’ against democracy his party leadership had allegedly hatched by staging sit-in in Islamabad.

Hashmi had tendered his resignation to the National Assembly speaker earlier this month.

Know more: Was Hashmi a ‘stranger’ in the House when he addressed joint session?

The by-poll in NA-149, from where Mr Hashmi had got elected in general elections, is likely to be held in the last week of October.

Although there has been no official word from top PML-N leadership about ‘rewarding’ Mr Hashmi by not fielding a candidate against him, a PPP leader from south Punjab Dawn spoke to on Monday said the Nawaz league had requested his party not to field its candidate against the veteran politician for what he had done for ‘the cause of democracy’.

In May 2013 election, PML-N’s Tahir Rasheed had bagged around 74,000 votes against Mr Hasmi’s over 83,000. PPP’s Malik Amir Dogar had managed to get over 21,000 votes.

A source said some PML-N south Punjab office-bearers had requested their party leadership to award ticket to Mr Rasheed as it was the wish of his supporters in the constituency.

“We should not support Mr Hashmi unless he formally announces joining the PML-N,” a PML-N leader close to Mr Rasheed was quoted as suggesting to the ‘N’ leadership. He was of the view that since Mr Rasheed lost to Mr Hashmi by a little margin in the last election, the PML-N should not ‘lose’ its potential candidate in order to accommodate the ‘PTI Baghi’.

Mr Rasheed’s supporters also cautioned the PML-N leadership that they might not vote for Hashmi if the party went against their proposal.

The Punjab government spokesman Mr Zaeem Qadri told Dawn the party’s parliamentary board would soon decide about the ticket for NA-149 by-election.

To a question about not fielding candidate against Mr Hashmi, he said: “The party leadership is yet to decide about it. However, Mr Hashmi has unquestionable services for democracy and we respect him,” he said.

On the other hand, the PTI has not yet decided whether to field a candidate against Mr Hashmi or not. The PTI workers from the constituency have reportedly requested party chairman Imran Khan to field a candidate as they wanted to teach Hasmi a “lesson” for betraying the leadership.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the PTI may consider fielding the son of its vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi against Mr Hashmi. But, Mr Qureshi dismissed such reports saying, “There is no veracity in the claim that my son will contest against Mr Hashmi in NA-149 by-poll.”

Mr Qureshi told Dawn that the PTI leaders would consult party workers in the constituency on the issue. “We will put the suggestions of the workers before the leadership before deciding whether the party should field its candidate against Mr Hashmi,” he said.

Earlier, PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry had announced that his party had decided in principle not to contest by-elections. The PTI is not taking part in next week by-poll in Sheikhupura.

On the other hand, Mr Hashmi has already launched his campaign in the constituency. When Dawn contacted him on Monday, his secretary said: “Mr Hashmi is busy in his election campaign.”

Interestingly, during his campaign his supporters are giving an impression that both PML-N and PPP have decided to support Mr Hashmi because of his ‘unquestionable’ services for democracy, a source said.

But, Mr Hashmi might face disappointment as the PPP had decided to field its candidate against him and PML-N leadership might also change its mind in the last minute, he added.

“The PPP south Punjab chapter has recommended the name of Malik Amir Dogar to the leadership for NA-149 by-poll,” PPP south Punjab vice-president Haider Zaman Qureshi told Dawn.

“We have a strong base in the constituency and we will not let it go for Mr Hashmi or anyone else,” Mr Qureshi said.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014