FAISALABAD, Sept 24: A neck-and-neck fight is expected in NA-79 where Safdar Shakir (PML-Q), Safdar Rehman (PML-N) and Rana Farooq Saeed (PPP) are using all their resources to secure the seat.

This constituency comprises Samundri Town, Ghidar Pindi, Muridwala, Salooni Jhal and adjoining villages mainly consisting of settlers. The Jats are in majority among the Rajputs, the Gujjars and the Arains. The biradari vote will play a decisive role in elections.

In the 1985 non-party elections, Ghazi Muhammad Abdullah won the elections by a close margin. His rival was Malik Muhammad Ali Shad.

In the 1988 elections, PPP’s Abdul Saboor defeated IJI’s Abdullah Ghazi while in the 1990, IJI’s Abdullah Ghazi poled a record 56,037 votes against PPP’s Abdul Saboor Khan who could manage only 30,275 votes.

In 1993, Chaudhry Nazir Ahmad, ex-ZC chairman and father of district Nazim Zahid Nazir, was the PPP candidate but he died a day before the polls. Later, his son Shahid Nazir won the byelections by defeating PML-N’s Safdar Rehman.

In the 1997 elections, Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi was jointly fielded by the PPP and PML-J against the PML-N candidate, Ch Safdar Rehman. Two independent candidates Rao Safdar Ali Khan and Maj Abdul Basit (retired) were the other contestants. Safdar won this seat with a huge margin by getting 69,246 votes.

This is the only constituency in the district where all the four main rivals are former parliamentarians.

The PML-N nominee, Safdar Rehman, is a former MNA while PML-QA candidate Safdar Shakir elected thrice to the provincial assembly. Similarly, PPP’s Rana Farooq Saeed Khan is an ex-MPA while PML-J nominee Abdullah Ghazi is also a former MNA.

The Jat candidates of the PPP or PML-N have always been winning this seat. The only exception was the 1993 when an Arain candidate, Shahid Nazir of the PPP, defeated the PML-N nominee, Safdar Rehman.

PML-QA’s Safdar Shakir has won all the previous elections in 1985, 1988, 1990 and 1997 except in 1993 when the seat was clinched by PPP’s Shahid Khalil Noor.

A Jat with having deep roots in his biradari, Safdar has also got the support of the police and other government officials.

Safdar Rehman (PML-N), a transporter-cum-cinema owner, hails from Faisalabad city. He had contested the previous three elections from this constituency.

PPP’s Rana Farooq Saeed Khan advocate alias Farooqa Terror had contested the elections for the provincial assembly in 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997, winning only once in 1993. He has recently established a chain of contacts after winning the seat of Samundri TMA Nazim.

Apart from banking on the Rajput votes, Farooq is trying to get the support of the Gujjars. For this purpose, he has fielded a strong Gujjar candidate, Maj Basit Elahi (retired), for the provincial assembly seat.

Abdullah Ghazi of the PML-J is a law graduate Jat and has been contesting elections since 1977, winning this seat twice in 1985 and 1990. He was also a member of Gen Zia’s Majlis-i-Shoora. He is relatively considered a weak candidate

suicide: Two youths committed suicide by jumping before the running trains in different incidents here on Tuesday.

Ashiq Ali, a jobless youth, took his life in Samundri tehsil while Mohammad Younas in Chak Jhumra. The area police have sent their bodies to hospitals for the postmortem examination..