GUJRAT: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf lawmaker, Saleem Sarwar Jaura, has announced his intention to contest the upcoming election of Gujrat Municipal Corporation (GtMC) mayor after resigning from the Punjab Assembly seat.

He made the announcement at a public gathering in city’s Khalidabad locality of union council 7 along Sargodha road.

Mr Jaura said he would seek permission from his party to quit the city’s [MPA] seat to contest the mayor election to ‘pose a challenge’ to those who had a misunderstanding that they did not have any contestant against them.

He said the Servis family of PPP’s former federal minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and Ahmed Saeed (who had been the traditional rivals of Chaudhrys of PML-Q), had left politics and the remaining opponents in PML-N had also failed due to their poor performance but that did not mean that there had been no room for an anti-PML-Q politics in Gujrat.

“I may also opt to contest the next general elections from city’s NA (69) seat in case of his party’s permission as those who had got votes in the name of honour of Gujrat are not ready to give respect to the people who have been left at the mercy of personal secretaries of some elected representatives,” Mr. Jaura said and warned that if any one tried to stop the project of gas provision to the UC-7 areas then he would stage a sit-in by blocking the GT road bypass at Shaheen chowk.

The PML Q’s leader Sumaira Elahi, who is the sister of former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, has already been running her campaign for the slot of Gujrat mayor.

Mr. Jaura of PTI had contested the July 2018 elections from PP-31 in alliance with the PML-Q in accordance with the seat adjustment formula.

Mr. Jaura has been at odds with the Chaudhrys for the last more than a year and would often criticise their policies in Gujrat.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2020