GUJRANWALA, July 14: The two factions of the PML-N led by former federal minister Ghulam Dasatgir Khan and former provincial minister Barrister Usman Ibrahim, pledged to jointly contest the local polls against the ruling PML candidates in the district. At a press conference here on Thursday, the leaders claimed that their party would sweep the coming election, while the ruling party could not find any strong candidates.

Former MNA Mahmood Bashir Virk, former MPAs Rauf Mughal, S A Hamid and former adviser to prime minister Engineer Khuram Dasatgir Khan and other senior party leaders were also present on the occasion.

Opposing the creation of four towns, they accused that the ruling party wanted to share the city’s resources through such tactics. The PML-N would abolish these towns after winning the local body election, they said.

They supported the 140 MNAs who had demanded accountability of former nazims and naib nazims of union councils before the elections and passed a resolution for the purpose.

They demanded that Javed Hashmi and Yousaf Raza Gilani should be released, while passport of Nawaz Sharif be renewed immediately.

They expressed serious concern over Ghotki train tragedy, besides the rising incidents of robbery, murder and gang-rape, demanding that the ruling party should quit immediately accepting its failure to run the government.

They later constituted an ‘election board’ comprising Barrister Usman Ibrahim, Khuram Dasatgir Khan, and Mahmood Bashir Virk for the National Assembly constituencies No 95, 96 and 97, respectively. The board would decide the candidates for local body election following consultation with veteran leader Ghulam Dasatgir Khan.