MULTAN, Sept 15: Pakistan People’s Party is the only political organization which has fielded candidates against all the six national and 13 provincial assemblies’ seats in the district.
Other main parties and alliances, including PML-N, PML-QA, MMA, PAT, NA and PTI, have failed to file as many candidates. The national assembly seats range between NA-148 and NA-153 and the constituencies of provincial assembly are from PP-194 to PP-206.
As many as 272 candidates have filed their nominations against these constituencies. Of them, at least 10 have been disqualified because of various reasons while 114 withdrew their papers by Sept 14 last. Now, some 40 candidates are contesting from national assembly and 108 from provincial assembly seats.
Pakistan Awami Tehreek could not field its candidates in NA-148, NA-151, NA-152 and NA-153 and in nine of the 13 provincial assembly constituencies from PP-198 to PP-206.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf has no candidate in NA-149, NA-151 and NA-152 and in PP-196, PP-197, PP-199, PP-200, PP-201, PP-203, PP-204, PP-205 and PP-206.
Alliance of the country’s six main religio-political organizations, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, has failed to find candidates in NA-148 and in PP-199, PP-200, PP-201, PP-202, PP-203, PP-204 and PP-206.
National Alliance, a group of several small and regional political parties, being led in the Southern Punjab by Millat Party Chief Sardar Farooq Lehgari, could find the only candidate Abbas Ali Ansari in NA-150. On the remaining five national assembly seats, it is to be seen whether the NA will support the PML-QA candidates under the umbrella of the Grand National Alliance. The alliance candidate on NA-150 has to face, among others, local heavyweight Teneerul Hassan Gillani of the PML-QA.
Similarly, the alliance could field only two candidates in PP-197 and PP-199. The alliance has to face PML-QA’s candidate in PP-197. In PP-201, neither NA nor PML-QA could field any candidate. PML-N, the second-largest party, has surprisingly failed to field candidates in PP-200, PP-202 and PP-204.
While local Nizam-i-Mustafa Party, Pakistan Seraiki Party and Seraiki Suba Movement could field only their respective heads in the electoral arena. NMP’s chief Allama Hamid Saeed Kazmi is in the race for NA-150, PSP’s Taj Muhammad Langah and SSM’s Mumtaz Jai for NA-149.
