GUJRAT: The PML-N has landed in trouble in Jalalpur Jattan, the only major urban town of NA-104, as 12 out of its 15 councillors in the municipal committee of the city have announced suspending their affiliation with the party against, what they termed, the failure of the party lawmakers to launch uplift schemes and ignoring them.

Sheikh Shahid Anwar, the group leader of the disgruntled councilors, told Dawn that a meeting of the 12 councilors of municipal committee was held on March 16 to discuss the affairs of the city as well as performance of the party lawmakers and councilors for the uplift of the city. It found the performance dissatisfactory despite the fact that the issues were repeatedly brought into the notice of the MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali and MPA Moin Nawaz Warraich. He said the PML-N lawmakers had not launched any development schemes for the downtown where the party had clinched a thumping majority in the local as well as the general elections.

Mr Anwar said the councilors in the meeting had unanimously decided to initially suspend the affiliation with the party with a request to the senior party leadership to look into the matter. A written resolution, having signs of all the participants of the meeting, was sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the chief minister, provincial minister for local bodies Manshullah Butt, PML-N district president Hanif Awan and the MNA and MPA of the area but they did not receive any positive response from any local or the senior leader of the party for redress of their grievances.

“The resolution has now been made public with a hope that the party would seriously consider our apprehensions; otherwise, it would have to face problems in the next general elections as the people would seek reply from the party. The lawmakers are only advancing the agenda of strengthening their personal groups and clans instead of strengthening the party politics,” Mr Anwar alleged.

12 of its 15 councillors ‘dissociate’ from party over bad performance

However, PML-N MPA Moin Nawaz Warraich rejected the allegations and terming them baseless he said the allegations had been leveled by one or two people who had a hidden agenda against the party.

Responding to the points raised by the councilors, he claimed that he along with the party MNA had launched a number of uplift schemes in the city during the past four years and more such projects were being launched. He had held several meetings with the group of disgruntled councilors during the last few days where issues raised by them were discussed in detail but some miscreants were working on a hidden agenda and trying to damage the party, he added. However, Mr Warraich hoped that most of the councilors would withdraw their decision of suspending the affiliation with the party.

It is pertinent to mention that the PML-N had won some 21 seats out of total 32 of the Jalalpur Jattan Municipal Committee but ironically the party nominees could not win the slots of chairman and vice chairman of the MC which were clinched by another group of disgruntled group of councilors that had joined the PML-Q and then won the election as the Q nominees. That’s why the remaining 15 councilors belonging to the ruling party have also been feeling ignored by the municipality.

On the other hand, the PML-N’s Nawabzada group is also facing challenges within its own ranks as the group’s key figures and elected representatives from at least eight union councils of Tanda Markaz have already demanded to make Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul, a PPP stalwart, as the group’s next candidate in NA-104. They think MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali has been unable to actively run the affairs of the constituency as well as the group due to health issues for the last few months.

Local political analysts opine that the Nawabzada group and the PML-N have been facing tough challenges regarding keeping their base of support intact ahead of the general election whereas the PML-Q has showed a unity among its ranks besides snatching the top slots of the Jalalpur Jattan municipal committee from the ruling party due to its better strategy and planning.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2017