JHANG, Aug 30: The Makhdoom group, led by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, has emerged as the single largest group in the 130-member strong Jhang district council after the display of final lists of the successful candidates for the nazim and councillor seats.

The group has secured 32 seats in all four tehsils of the district, claims a Makhdoom house spokesman while speaking to journalists here on Tuesday.

The voters have generally expressed distrust of the MNAs and MPAs and barring a few most of them have failed to get the majority of their nominees elected nazims and naib nazims from various union councils in their respective constituencies.

Sitting MNAs like Sheikh Waqas Akram, Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, Saima Bharwana and Tahir Ali Shah have failed to prove their mettle in their constituencies, winning only three, six, five and three seats of nazims, respectively. Even Faisal Saleh Hayat has failed to win fifty 50 per cent of the seats from his Shah Jewna constituency and most of the seats won by his group have come from the constituency of Ghulam Bibi Bharwana from where his younger brother, Syed Asad Hayat, contested the NA election and lost to Mrs Bharwana in 2002.

The group has also won a good number of seats from the Chiniot constituency of MNA Tahir Ali Shah, which is a traditional stronghold of PPP and Faisal Saleh, who still has not lost his place in the hearts of the PPP workers.

A majority of the MPAs has faced defeats in its constituencies with Qamar Hayat Kathia and Saqlain Anwar Sipra failing to win even a single nazim seat. Some others, including Faisal Jaboona, Imtiaz Lali and Ghulam Ahmad Gadi, have chipped in with a couple of seats.

The two MPAs who came out with flying colours were Najaf Sial from Ahmadpur Sial and Zahoor Sajid Janjua from the Jhang Saddar constituency while Zahoor Sajid faced very little opposition in obtaining seven seats of UC nazims.

Najaf Sial was pitted against very strong rivals in MNA Mahmood Sultan and former district nazim Sahibzada Sultan Hameed. Mr Sial was the moving spirit behind the creation of Ahmadpur Sial tehsil and contested the 2002 general elections in collaboration with the Sahibzada group on the PML-Q ticket with Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan. During the last six months, however, the two mates from the same constituency developed differences and ultimately parted ways.

In the recent local elections, the two groups fielded their candidates on all 13 UCs of Ahmadpur Sial — 10 of those won by Najaf Sial against Sahibzada Sultan Hameed group which also happens to be the official nominee for the coveted Jhang district nazim slot.

Political analysts believe that if the Sial group joins hands with the Makhdoom group, their nominee will easily win the district nazim seat even without the chief minister’s intervention.

Re-emergence of the outlawed Sipah-i-Sahaba in the Jhang municipality area is also a prominent feature of the election. The SSP has bagged 10 out of 13 union council nazim seats with one going to independent candidate Dr Abul Hassan and two to MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram group.