GUJAR KHAN: The 19 councillor seats at the Gujar Khan municipal committee saw tough contests, resulting in the victory of nine PML-N candidates, seven independents, two PTI candidates and one PPP candidate.

PML-N’s Sahahid Saraf is eyeing the office of chairman of the Gujar Khan municipality. His dera has been a haven for politicians who were in power during the PPP and PML-Q eras.

Khawaja Naeem Qayyum, a former PML-N president, is also being considered a favourite of the independent winners, particularly for his sway with the Kashmiri community.

However, independent winners are likely to join the ruling party camp. Advocate Saqib Baig, an independent candidate, was a PML-N worker who could not win a party ticket, and is now poised to make a comeback into the party fold.

UC chairmen results

Of the 36 UCs in the Gujar Khan tehsil, PML-N won 23 seats, independent candidates won nine, PTI three and PPP won one seat.

The tehsil was an exciting arena for the local government elections, as former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf could not restrain himself from launching and running campaigns for his candidates. One PPP ticket holder, Chaudhry Abrar Rasheed of UC Jatly, won a seat by a margin of 1,500 votes against a PTI candidate, while the PML-N candidate lost due to involvement in court litigations.

Saqlain Ejaz Janjua, who won as an independent candidate from the Jhugal UC, is a close companion of Raja Pervez Ashraf and may prove to be a comrade of Mr Rasheed in the district assembly.

Mohammad Khan Bhatti is seen as the PML-N stalwart in the district assembly, since he has won seven consecutive times from his constituency.

Sheikh Tahir Ishfaq, whose family was allied with PPP since its founding until a split during the premiership of Raja Pervez Ashraf, defeated PML-N’s Raja Mumtaz.

In UC Mohra Noori, Raja Irfan Aziz, a relative of PML-N’s Raja Jawaid Ikhlas, defeated PPP’s Sultan Akbar.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2015