JHELUM, Dec 16: The back breaking hike in atta prices is going to overshadow claims of development work by the king’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), when it faces its mother party, the Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in the important constituency of NA-62 tehsil Sohawa and Dina where the influence of Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP) seems to have faded with its old guard out of the scene. Yet the game has just begun and how family ties, involvement of local administration and such other factors emerge on the chessboard in the short campaign will soon be known.

Jhelum has been a stronghold of PPP. Diehards like Dr Ghulam Hussain and his comrades have almost disappeared from the political horizon while the family of former PPP stalwart and former Punjab governor Chaudhry Altaf Hussain has already joined PML and former federal minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain (brother of Chaudhry Altaf Hussain late) is contesting two National Assembly seats for the second time.

Dr Ghulam Hussain had last time contested from the platform of PPP-Shahid Bhutto Group but around this time he is nowhere to be seen. On the other side old rivals of the 2002 election Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain, uncle of District Nazim Chaudhry Farrakh Altaf, is facing PML-N’s Raja Muhammad Safdar, son of former MNA Raja Afzal and PPP’s Chaudhry Suhail Zafar. During the 2002 elections Shahbaz Hussain had secured 74,615 votes against Mr Safdar’s 51,962 while PPP’s Suhail Zafar had bagged 15,133.

A number of residents interviewed by this reporter commented that the contest between Chaudhry Shahbaz and Raja Safdar is expected to be tough. According to them PML-Q lays claim to development work and assigning of tehsil status to Dina. On the other hand Raja Afzal has been MNA from Jhelum several times in the past and his another son, Raja Asad, had won from NA-63 in 2002. They are an influential family of the area. However people are wary of the administrative clout Farrakh and Shahbaz possess.

In PP-24 Sohawa constituency, former MPA Chaudhry Saqlain, who had succeeded on PML-Q ticket during the 2002 elections, looks like an independent this time around though he is reputed to enjoy the sympathies of PML-N. Last time he had secured 40,449 votes. His old rival, Dr Abdul Qayyum, is in the king’s party now having fought the last election on the Nawaz ticket securing 27,378 votes. PPP had then fielded Raja Imtiaz Kiani in this constituency but he could get only 6,703 votes. Now he is contesting as an independent candidate while PPP ticket has been given to a London-returned Syed Hassan Bokhari who claims to be a close associate of Benazir Bhutto.

The Sohawa tehsil is spread over a vast area and Raja Aftab Zahoor is the town nazim here.