MUZAFARRAGRH: After the local body elections are over in Muzaffargarh district, different groups have started lobbying for top district council and municipal committees offices.

The PML-N, which secured 57 seats of the 111 district’s union councils, will bag the top office of the district council.

The PPP got three seats while nine seats went to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. The remaining are with independent candidates, of them 13 are reportedly from the PPP.

Three groups are taking interest in the district council office - MNA Sultan Hinjra group, Abdullah Shah group and Ashiq Gopang group.

In Kot Addu tehsil, MNA Sultan Hinjra’s group emerged the stronger one where his group won Kot Addu and Daira Din Pannah municipal seats while his nephew Qasim Hinjra, who was elected UC chairman, is a candidate for the district council chairman office. Mr Hinjra has started contacting independent candidates.

He told Dawn that he was hopeful that his candidate would be nominated by the PML-N leadership. He said he would make Muzaffargarh district a mini Lahore for the PML-N.

Former MPA Syed Abdullah Shah Bukhari, who is father of MNA Basit Bukhari and provincial minister Syed Haroon Sultan Bukhari, is another candidate. He claimed that his group had gained the support of a majority of chairmen.

Sardar Khizer Hayat Gopang, who is former Alipur tehsil nazim, said that his son Jaggo Gopang would be candidate for the district council chairman as his cousin MNA Ashiq Gopang was working overtime for his nomination as a PML-N candidate.

For the Muzaffargarh Municipal Committee chairman office, PML-N MPA Hammad Nawaz Tipo is trying to instal his brother Quddos Nawaz as the chairman. He is likely to be challenged by Sardar Abad Dogar group of the PML-N.

In Kot Addu Municipal Committee, the Hinjra group has nominated Akhtar Barrar for the chairman office while PML-N district candidate Arshad Javed Gudara is fielding Rafique Khan as the party candidate.

Malik Ajmal Hinjra, brother of the MNA, has presented himself as candidate for a chairman of the Daira Din Pannah Municipal Committee.

In Shehr Sultan, PPP candidate Ziaullah Jatoi is likely to face Abdullah Shah Bukhari group’s Shehzad Hassan Jatoi, who is brother-in-law of PML-N MPA Khan Mohammad Jatoi. In Alipur, PML-N MPA Sibtain Bukhari has put up his uncle Ghazanfar Naqvi as candidate for the municipal committee while the Jatoi group has not nominated any candidate so far. For the Jatoi Municipal Committee office, there is a tough fight between the Abdullah Shah group and the Jatoi group as both groups have 10 members each.

Former PPP MPA Irshad Ahmad Sial said that 13 independent candidates who had won with the help of PPP would soon join the party. He said his brother Ameer Akbar won on the PPP ticket as former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had visited Muzaffargarh district for his campaign. He said the PPP would win the next elections as by that time, people would know that their budget had been spent on the Orange Line project in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015