GUJRAT: The PML-N seems in a fix over fielding a candidate against Pervaiz Elahi in Gujrat’s NA-69 constituency and it has been changing its potential candidates for the last few months.

Ex-MNA Chaudhry Mubashar Hussain, a relative of the Chaudhrys, had announced withdrawal from the race of party ticket more than six months ago but has once again jumped into arena by making a claim of having the party (PML-N) nod to contest against Pervaiz Elahi in 2018.

Mubashar announced launch of his election campaign on Friday and claimed that he had been given a nod by Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif to contest the next general elections.

The party had earlier announced Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed, elder brother of PPP’s former federal minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, as PML-N candidate for NA-69. It was Mr Saeed who had been allotted the uplift funds for the rural areas of the constituency around six months ago due to which ex-MNA Mubashar had expressed reservations and withdrew his candidature at that time.

Mubashar was the PML-N nominee in the 2013 election on NA-105, Gujrat city-Kunjah (now NA-69) and was defeated by Pervaiz Elahi with a margin of some 13,000 votes. The party was reportedly not satisfied with his performance and floated the name of Ahmed Saeed.

Ahmed Mukhtar may not contest this time round on health grounds.

PML-N MNA Abid Raza Kotla has paved the way for the party ticket for Mubashar since Kotlas are said to have issues with Ahmed Saeed who had opposed Tanveer Kotla’s candidature for the slot of Gujrat district council chairman in December 2016.

On the other hand, Mr Saeed seems least interested in doing the electoral politics in Gujrat since he has been living in Lahore for long and occasionally visits Gujrat.

A local PML-N group led by Gujrat Municipal Corporation Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood and his nephew MPA Imran Zafar are the staunch supporters of Ahmed Saeed’s candidature.

Apart from that the local PML-N workers say Ahmed Saeed has been doing active politics against the Chaudhrys for the last four decades in Gujrat due to which the group has a good following at the local level and according to them only Ahmed Saeed can put a good fight in NA-69.

Mubashar says he is an ideological worker who remained loyal to the party through thick and thin and even if the party decides to boycott the election he will abide by the decision. He claims that the PTI had offered him the ticket but he declined to accept the offer.

Mubashar is the scion of ex-MNA Chaudhry Tajamal Hussain and brother of former PML-Q MNA Tanzeela Aamir Cheema from Sargodha and he was elected an MNA in 1997 on a PML-N ticket and then he did not contest the 2002 elections due to some issues related to NAB.

Differences cropped up between Mubashar and Chaudhrys of PML-Q in 2007 which resulted in his joining and supporting the PML-N in the 2008 election. He quit the PML-N in 2011 and joined the PTI that did not award him the ticket for NA-105 in 2013 and he again joined the PML-N just four weeks ahead of the last general elections and was given the ticket on the recommendation of Ahmed Saeed but he could not win.

Ahmed Saeed says he will comment on the development after discussing the matter with the higher-ups.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018