GUJRAT: Former federal minister from Mandi Bahauddin, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, has announced his intention to contest the next general elections by forming his own independent panel after parting ways with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) following the violent incidents of May 9.

Mr Gondal said two former MPAs, Gulraiz Afzal Chan and Sajid Ahmed Bhatti, previously associated with the PTI and the PML-Q, will also be part of his panel as candidates for the two Punjab Assembly constituencies -- PP-67 (Qadirabad) and PP-68 (Malakwal), falling under NA-80.

Mr Gondal, former Mandi Bahauddin district nazim (2001-05) and two-time MNA of the PPP (1993 and 2008), made the announcement while speaking to reporters in Malakwal on Monday.

He joined the PTI after ending his decades-old affiliation with the PPP and contested the 2018 general elections as a PTI nominee. However, he suffered a significant defeat at the hands of his arch-rival Nasir Iqbal Bosal of the PML N.

In response to a question, he stated that after leaving the PTI, he decided not to join any party and would contest the elections by forming his own independent panel to serve the masses.

He claimed to have consulted with the Bhatti brothers (the local political group of Muhammad Khan Bhatti, former secretary Punjab Assembly) for forging an alliance in local electoral politics.

Previously, the Bhatti group of PP 67 had been political allies of the PML N’s Nasir Bosal in the local electoral politics of Mandi Bahauddin since 2008. Mr Bhatti (nephew of Muhammad Khan Bhatti) had won the PA seat in 2018 as an independent candidate in alliance with the PML N, but later joined PML Q.

Similarly, the same PA seat had been won by the then PML Q leaders Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi in 2008 and 2013, with the support base of the Bhatti group. However, they vacated the seat both times, and PPP’s Zulfiqar Gondal (younger brother of Nazar Gondal) and PML N’s Akhtar Bosal (cousin of Nasir Bosal) won in the by-elections in 2008 and 2013 respectively.

He vowed to defeat his opponents in the next elections and urged his supporters to start preparations for the upcoming polls.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2023