SARGODHA: Billboard posters bearing the pictures of MPA Dr Nadia Aziz with lotas cropped up on Thursday in the city areas, three days after she joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after a meeting with PTI chief Imran Khan on May 21.

Last week, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the city where Dr Aziz met him and demanded ticket for NA-90, which insiders say, was rejected by the party president.

After that, she with her associates turned to the PTI and joined the party after getting an assurance for the NA ticket. Her father Malik Azizul Haq contested elections on the PPP ticket in the past and in 2002, he fielded her daughter, Dr Aziz, who is a medical practitioner, for the MPA seat. She was elected MPA.

She, however, failed to retain the seat in the 2008 election. In the following by-election, she was again defeated.

Later, she ditched the PPP and joined the PML-N before the 2013 elections. She was elected MPA after defeating PTI’s Ansar Majeed Niazi with a margin of over 10,000 votes.

Though the district saw a wave of defections from the PML-N and the PML-Q to the PTI, but no hostile campaign was seen against MPAs Faisal Farooq Cheema (PML-N) and Aamer Sultan Cheema (PML-Q).

Dr Aziz’s entrance to the PTI ranks has scared so many leaders who have been eying the party ticket for NA-90, PP-77 and PP-78 for a long time.

Of them, Mumtaz Ahmad Kahilon (PTI vice president of northern Punjab), Mehr Mansoor Hayat Luk and Malik Shoaib Awan have applied for the party ticket for NA 90. For PP-78 ticket, PTI city president Ansar Majeed Niazi, Mahmood Bakhsh Gilani, Shahbaz Bajwa, Fayaz Ahmad Othi and Naveed Aslam Warraich are in the run. For PP-77, the major contenders are Rao Mudassar, Zulfikar Bhatti, Shahzad Ahmad Qureshi, Rao Rahat Ali Khan, Mehr Mohsin Raza, Arshad Awan and Hamyun Awan.

They have written to the party chief that if newcomers are awarded party tickets, they will oppose party decisions in the election.

Dr Aziz, however, has an edge on others as none of them has ever been elected MPA or MNA and only Shoaib Awan remained the TMA chairman and MPA in the past. He was a staunch worker of the PPP. Mahmood Gilani was once elected union council nazim during the Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi regime.

Mr Kahilon’s son have tried twice for NA-90 and failed. Some circles believe that some PTI leaders are behind this smear campaign against Dr Aziz.

Political circles believe PML-N’s likely candidate for NA-90 Chaudhry Hamid Hameed and PPP’s Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi cannot launch such a move against Dr Aziz. The PPP looked the other way when she ditched the party to join the PML-N in 2013.

People, however, have expressed annoyance over such tricks to settle political scores.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018