GUJRAT, March 9: The political bigwigs of Gujrat have once again stepped up efforts to ‘oust’ Kharian tehsil nazim Nadeem Asghar Kaira, paving the way for former district naib nazim Syed Noorul Hassan Shah to contest the election for the slot.

They have reportedly asked Shah to contest the election if Kaira will be disqualified through a no-trust move, it is learnt on Friday. The previous attempt to get Kaira disqualified through a no-confidence motion against him was made last year, but all without success.

Noor Shah had lost the election from NA-107 on a PML ticket in 2002 to the then PPP nominee, Rehman Naseer Marala. The political scenario in the constituency, however, changed when Marala quit the PPP and joined the PML. Noor Shah was later allotted the ticket of tehsil nazim, but he lost the election against Nadeem Kaira by a narrow margin of two votes in 2005.

The Chaudhrys are nowadays facing a dilemma as their close relative Chaudhry Mubashar Husain, a former MNA, has started campaign from NA-107 with a demand of the PML ticket. Now three candidates — MNA Rehman Naseer Marala, Noor Shah and Mubashar Husain — are struggling to get the PML ticket for the constituency.

Sources told Dawn that the Chaudhrys wanted to accommodate Marala for NA-107 owing to his support by top army officials. They fear that the ruling party vote bank will be divided if the three ticket seekers contest the polls and that will favour the PML-N or the PPP nominee.

The situation has worried the Chaudhrys who now have decided to table another no-trust move against tehsil nazim Nadeem Kaira to accommodate Noor Shah.

Earlier on Aug 7, 2006, the Kairas of Lalamusa had the last laugh as a no-trust move against Nadeem Kaira by the Chaudhrys remained unsuccessful. Of the 61 members of the house, a two-thirds majority (41 votes) was needed to oust the tehsil nazim. Two house members, Chaudhry Talib (union council Kotla naib nazim) and Chaudhry Rasheed (UC Ach naib nazim) tabled the no-trust move and submitted it to Tehsil Naib Nazim Irfan Naseer Marala.

Later, polling through secret balloting was held under the supervision of a returning officer. As many as 51 members cast their votes — 35 in the favour of the no-trust move and 10 against it. Six votes were rejected by the returning officer.

Political analysts say the Chaudhrys have been trying to take over Kharian tehsil for the past many years.

Earlier, they assessed that Kaira had defeated Shah because of differences among leaguers. After Kaira became tehsil nazim for the second time, the Chaudhrys had planned to oust him and convened several meetings of leaguers to convince them to bury their differences.

Kaira convened the budget session in June 2006, but it was rejected by a majority of the members.

Sources said the top politicians had not only given a green signal to Noor Shah to contest election for the tehsil nazim’s slot, but also offered him that a ticket from PP-112 will also be given to someone from his family in the forthcoming elections.

Noor Shah, the younger brother of former MNA Manzoor Shah (late), told Dawn at Qulewal Syedan that he had not received any offer so far. He said he wanted to contest the election from NA-107 where he enjoyed a reasonable vote bank.

The no-trust move against Nadeem Kaira is expected to be tabled within this month.

PENDING: The election commission has failed to disqualify the two council members who had tabled a foiled no-trust move against Nadeem Kaira. Both members belong to the Kotla group.