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FAISALABAD, Dec. 26: Naib nazims for the Lyallpur and Chak Jhumra towns have been elected unopposed while contest for the remaining six towns and city district would be held on Dec 28.
Nadeem Aftab Sindhu was declared winner in Lyallpur town while Mian Muhammad Akram in Chak Jhumra, both of the ruling party, as none of the candidates from the opposition parties filed nomination papers.
Meanwhile, seven candidates filed nomination papers for the naib nazim of the city district. They are; former MNA Mian Amjad Yaseen (ruling party nominee), opposition supported Sheikh Muhammad Yousaf and five others — Basharat Manj, Mushtaq Toor, Arif Bukhari, Rana Idrees and Abdul Hafeez Bawa.
Seven candidates have filed their nomination papers for Jaranwala naib nazim while six are in the race for Jinnah town, four for Samundri, three for Tandlianwala and two each for Madina and Iqbal towns.
OPPOSITION DISPUTE: The dispute between the local organizations of the PPP (Parliamentarians) and the PML-N over the nomination of candidates for the office of naib nazims could not be resolved.
Reports about the change of loyalties by the ARD-backed city district nazim, Rana Zahid Tauseef, also disturbed the opposition leaders for whom the last phase of local body election has become an uphill task.
PML-N leader Rana Zahid, former MNA and elder brother of MNA Rana Asif Tauseef, had contested the elections with the support of the PPP and the PML-N and won the top slot. But, according to sources, the ruling party leadership succeeded in prevailing upon the Rana who joined the party after a meeting with Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.
On Monday, the PPP leaders Punjab secretary general MPA Rana Aftab Ahmad; divisional coordinator MPA Raja Riaz Ahmad; city president former MPA Mahmoodul Hasan Dar and city secretary-general MPA Dr Asad Moazam during a press conference announced support for Sheikh Muhammad Yousaf for naib nazim of city district and declared him as the ARD nominee.
PPP leaders also supported Rana Mushtaq for naib nazim of Jinnah Town; Rai Shahbaz Ahmad for Jaranwala and Malik Asif for Iqbal Town.
But Jinnah Town nazim Shahzad Malik, brother of PML-N MPA Nawaz Malik, has fielded his own candidate, Sheikh Zulfiqar, for the office of naib nazim and openly launched his campaign.
PPP leaders claimed that, according to an unwritten agreement, it was decided that the PPP would nominate its candidate for the Jaranwala, Iqbal and Jinnah towns because nazim candidates from these towns had been selected from the PML-N. The PML-N is bound to field candidates for Samundri, Tandlianwala, Chak Jhumra, Madina and Lyallpur towns, they added.
When contacted, deputy opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Rana Sanullah Khan of the PML-N denied the claims of the PPP leaders that the naib nazim candidates had been announced with mutual understanding and they have the support of ARD parties. He said PPP leaders announced their activists as candidates for the city district and town naib nazims without taking the PML-N into confidence. Not a single meeting in this connection had been arranged.
