GUJRANWALA: The PML-N high command reversed within 24 hours its decision of nominating Suleman Khalid Butt alias Pomi Butt, brother of MPA Imran Khalid Butt, for the Gujranwala municipal corporation mayor slot and gave party ticket again to Sheikh Sarwat Ikram, nominee of the Ghulam Dasatgir Khan group.

Sources said PML-N’s Punjab leadership led by Hamza Shahbaz had nominated Pomi Butt for mayor and Sheikh Sarwat Ikram and Hamza Butt for deputy mayors’ slots. The decision reportedly drew strong opposition from party workers and chairmen and councillors-elect of several union councils.Federal minister Khuram Dasatgir Khan and his father Ghulam Dasatgir Khan met party Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad and other senior ministers in Islamabad on Thursday and informed them about the `alarming situation’ in Gujranwala.

Later, they all called on party chief and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and got reversed nominations for mayor and deputy mayor slots.

Pomi Butt and Rana Maqsood Ahmad, backed by MNA Mahmood Bashir Virk, will now run for the deputy mayors’ offices. Hamza Butt, a nephew of Begum Kalsoom Nawaz, has been withdrawn.Pomi Butt claimed that the prime minister had phoned him personally and asked him to contest election for the deputy mayor slot. “I accepted my leader’s decision since I am an ordinary party worker.”

MNA Mahmood Bashir Virk earlier went to state minister Barrister Usman Ibrahim’s group and supported his brother Aslam Ibrahim for mayor’s office but was lured back by the Dasatgirs who offered deputy mayor slot to Rana Maqsood. The Barrister Ibrahim group is angry with the party leadership.

Sources said party leadership, at a meeting in Lahore a few days ago, had offered him deputy mayor slot for his brother after three months but he refused.

Meanwhile, workers of the Khan group distributed sweets after the nomination of Sarwat Ikram and Rana Maqsood for mayor and deputy mayor slots.

FIRED: Three traffic wardens were dismissed from service on Thursday.

City Traffic Officer Asif Zafar Cheema reviewed the performance of wardens and dismissed Nawaz Gondal, Muhammad Imran and Tariq Virk on charges of corruption and inefficiency.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2016