SIALKOT, Feb 6: After division in the PML, both the rival groups in the Sialkot district have launched membership drive in their separate camps established in various parts of the city to show their strength in the forthcoming local bodies polls.

District Nazim Mian Naeem Javaid group has initiated its membership campaign under the supervision of PML district president Syed Naeem Amjad Shah advocate and NA speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain. This group also claims enjoying the support of Variyo family.

Addressing various public meetings, District Nazim Mian Naeem Javaid claimed that his group represented the true PML. While the second group, led by provincial Industries and Investment Minister Ajmal Cheema and his younger brother and Sialkot tehsil Nazim Muhammad Akmal Cheema, has also started the membership drive.

Almost all the Sialkot district' state and provincial ministers and MPAs filled their membership forms at the Cheema group's camps.

This group also claims to have the backing of Variyo family and state minister for privatization & investment Umer Ahmad Ghuman, federal parliamentary secretary Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, state minister for information technology & telecommunication Ali Asjad Malhi, state minister for defence Zahid Hamid, Punjab labour & human resources minister Syed Akhtar Hussain Rizvi and Punjab public accounts committee chairman Azeem Noori Ghuman. However, the Variyo family is still following the policy of wait and see.

Leaders of both the rival groups are publicly criticizing and blaming each other for the PML division in Sialkot.

As of now, no sincere efforts have been made by federal or provincial leadership to re-unite the party and force the local politicians to shun their differences in the larger interest of the PML.

The division in the PML and mounting political differences between the two groups ahead of the local bodies elections would prove inimical to the party.