TAXILA: With the elections to cantonment boards less than 24 hours away, the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) unlikely alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Taxila has raised many eyebrows, as PPP leaders have been seen supporting the campaigns of ruling party candidates in the two wards where elections will be held on April 25.

PPP jiyalas are stunned by the open support that local PPP leaders such as retired Col Kazim Shah, Zaheer Hussain Shah Zildar and PPP Taxila Chapter President Malik Najeebur Rehman are putting behind the two PML-N candidates, Zarrar Awan and advocate Ghulam Dastagir.

Khadim Shah, a PPP worker, told Dawn he – like all other party loyalists – was stunned by the party’s decision to support traditional rivals PML-N, especially candidates that the PPP workers have opposed tooth and nail during the local government and general elections.

“We are bound to follow the leadership’s decision for the sake of maintaining party discipline and are trying to swallow this bitter pill in the interests of the party,” he said.

“We do not like the PML-N because we consider it a party formed by undemocratic elements. The PML-N leadership has always victimized our people, especially former chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari. But today, being asked to support their candidates is nothing short of political suicide for us,” another PPP worker told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

PPP leaders supporting PML-N candidates’ campaigns; PTI joins hands with PAT again

When contacted, Malik Najeeb Ur Rehman said that the primary purpose of politics was solving the people’s problems. He said his party announced support for the PML-N candidate in Taxila because the local leadership figured their candidate could get things done more effectively, given that their party was in power in the centre and in Punjab.

He admitted that there were differences within the party’s ranks over this decision, but shrugged it off by saying, “This is the beauty of democracy.”

PTI-PAT team up again

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), who were reluctant partners in the anti-government protests and sit-in outside parliament last year, will be seen working together once again for cantt elections in Wah, where latter announced their support for PTI candidates after their party could not field “appropriate and strong” candidates in various wards.

Local PTI MPA Sadeeq Khan, who is running the election campaigns for PTI candidates in Taxila and Wah, said that both parties had an understanding on various national issues, so an understanding at the local level was not “unusual or unnatural”.

Since both parties staged the historic sit-in together, workers and supporters have welcomed this decision on both sides, he said, adding that PAT’s strong and loyal vote bank would definitely help PTI on polling day.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the Taxila chapter of the Tehreek-i-Jafria Pakistan (TJP) also announced its support for the PML-N candidate in the Wah Cantt elections.

TJP General Secretary Mohsin Naqvi told Dawn that PML-N Rawalpindi District President Sardar Mumtaz Khan met with local TJP leaders at the residence of local coordinator Abbass Sherazi. Leaders from both sides reached a political consensus and it was decided that the TJP would support the PML-N in the upcoming cantt polls.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also finalised the election plan for polls in Taxila Cantt and presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and polling officers have been appointed.

Syed Zakki Haider Rizvi, the cantonment executive officer who was notified as the returning officer for the election by the ECP, told newsmen that as many as 6,938 registered voters, including 3,684 men and 3,254 women, were registered to vote in the two wards.

He said that 10 polling stations and 14 polling booths had been established and that 6 presiding officers, 14 assistant presiding officers and 14 polling officers had been appointed to conduct the elections smoothly. He also said that the police would be on hand to provide security, assisted by military personnel, who will ensure law and order around polling stations.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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