LAHORE, Aug 9: PML-N candidates or the opposition nominees with which the party has made adjustments will win the local elections on 90 per cent of seats in all major cities of Punjab provided the polls are free and fair, claims a provincial leader of the party.

Secreatry-general Zaeem Qadri told Dawn on Tuesday that Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Lahore, Gujranwala, Jhelum, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts would be swept by the opposition-backed candidates as people of these areas were more educated and enlightened.

Elsewhere, he said, the government-backed candidates would try to steal the results, but the opposition would expose them. “The nation will hold the vote manipulators accountable on the streets,” he warned.

Qadri said of all seats being contested, the PML-N had put up its candidates on 60 per cent seats and on another 30 to 35 per cent it had made adjustments with the PPP and the MMA. On most of the seats where adjustments had been made, the candidates belonged to the PML-N, he said.

He did not agree with the suggestion that the party performance would be affected in the areas where the PML-N legislators had changed loyalties. He also rejected the assertion that lawmakers had joined the ruling party because of the attitude of the PML-N leadership.

Qadri said nobody had any complaint against the leadership’s attitude over the past five years. And, he argued, people should judge for themselves why some PML-N legislators had joined hands with the ruling party at the time of local polls. “Either they have been intimidated or offered baits,” he speculated.

He said one of the legislators who had changed loyalties had said in the presence of the chief minister that he was not getting development funds for his constituency. Qadri said this had fully exposed the democratic credentials of the chief minister.

When it was pointed out that the need for development funds could be used by many others as a pretext to switch loyalties, the PML-N leader said there was no possibility of more defections.

He said those who had stood by Nawaz Sharif when his government was toppled had chosen for themselves a difficult course. Those who had surrendered halfway when the struggle for democracy was still going on, had failed in their duties, he said.

He predicted that such people would soon go into a political oblivion, and the nation would not support the elements who had traded their ideology for benefits.

He categorically denied reports that the PML-N was supporting the ruling party candidates in Narowal district.

As for Zulfikar Ali Khosa’s cooperation with Maqsood Leghari, a ruling party leader in Dera Ghazi Khan, Zaeem Qadri said in that area former president Farooq Leghari represented the ruling party and all other tribal chiefs were against him. He said the Punjab government was supporting Farooq Leghari and his group and in reaction Maqsood Leghari was supporting Khosa.

He said nobody should forget that even Sardar Nasrullah Dreshak, whose son was a minister in the Punjab cabinet, was opposing Farooq Leghari.

He said adjustments in local elections had always been a serious problem, and it was for this reason that most of the opposition parties were demanding party-based polls.

The PML-N leader said the real strength of political parties would be clear at the time of the tehsil and district nazim elections.

He said Gen Musharraf could not afford to hold free and fair elections.