GUJRAT: Afzal Gondal, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate for old NA-105 in 2013, submitted his nomination papers for now NA-69 seat on Saturday, warning the party not to entre into an alliance with the PML-Q or face damages the PPP suffered due to such seat adjustments the PML-Q in 2011.

The PTI has left two NA and three Punjab Province (PP) seats in Gujrat district for PML-Q leaders Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, Chaudhry Hussain Elahi and other PML-Q candidates.

Mr Gondal, who is leading the party workers in Gujrat, has vowed to strive for the party ticket till last moment and they may hold a sit-in at Banigala.

He said that ideological workers had not invested their energies and resources for party cause from Gujrat just to accommodate the candidates from other parties.

The PML-Q leadership is also under pressure from its candidates on seat adjustments with the PTI, as they say they are in position to win their seats.

PML Q’s senior leader Chaudhry Wajahat Husain has announced his own panel of candidates for NA-68, PP-28 and PP-29 ignoring the proposed seat adjustment under which the PML-Q is to support PTI’s Zubair Ahmed Khan in PP-28.

Wajahat announced in a public gathering at Tanda that his son Hussain Elahi would contest for NA-68 and Shujaat Nawaz Ajnala and former MPA Abdullah Yousaf for PP-28 and PP-29.

Similarly, PTI workers are waiting for the announcement of ticket for PP-34 (Sara-i-Alamgir) where PTI’s Raja Naeem Nawaz was runners up in 2013 elections. It is learnt the PML-Q has been demanding the seat for its nominee Naeem Raza Kotla, former adviser to the chief minister.

Surprisingly, the PTI did not awarded ticket to former PML-N MPA Ashraf Deona for PP-29 or PP-33 (Lalamusa). Former MPA Liaqat Ali Bhadar is the PTI choice for PP-33 while PP-29 is open for seat adjustment with the PML Q. In PP-31 (Gujrat city), the PTI announced ticket for Saleem Sarwar but the PML-Q is demanding this constituency for former education minister Imran Masood, who has won this seat in 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2002 and lost in 2008, 2010 by polls and 2013.

Sources say Deona and other disgruntled people in the PTI are trying to fail the seat adjustment between the PTI and the PML-Q.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2018