MULTAN, Dec 18: Wheeling and dealing for the vacant Multan district Nazim office is picking up with political stakeholders weighing various options to notch the coveted post.

Multan is the only district whose Nazim had resigned to contest the Oct 10 general election. Former Nazim and PPP’s central deputy secretary-general Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi returned to the National Assembly from NA-148.

According to the law, the district council has to elect Nazim within a week of the resignation/demise of the leader of the House for an interim period of three months during which the electoral college for the Nazim office has to be asked to elect new leader.

After the resignation of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, his deputy Malik Amer Dogar was nominated by the Local Government Department as acting Nazim. However, neither he was asked nor he himself took an initiative to hold in-House elections to elect Nazim for the interim period of three months.

Contrary to the stand of Shah Mahmood against the presidential referendum of April, 2002, Amer Dogar supported the regime on this account despite having affiliations with the PPP. But, this deviation from party policy did not pay dividends as the orders for his acting nazimship were withdrawn and his father, former Multan mayor Salahuddin Dogar, was also put behind bars by NAB under corruption charges.

At present, district coordination officer Maj Azam Suleman (retired) has been working as acting Nazim, though there is no justification to appoint a civil servant against an elected office.

The Election Commission had expressed its inability to hold immediate elections for the vacant posts in various tiers of local bodies after the resignation of Nazimeen for being busy in holding the general election. Although the commission has not yet announced the schedule for bypolls, aspirants are expecting them in near future after the completion of governments in Centre and the provinces.

The clans of Qureshi, Gillani, Diwan, Syed, Bodan and Noon are the key players in the local politics. The Multan city tehsil Nazim and industrialist, Mian Faisal Mukhtar, initially tried to muster support to become the district Nazim, but he could not make through against the heavyweights of feudal background even though he was pushed forward by the ‘powerful’ circles of the country.

After his failure to gain popularity among the electorate, his party PML-Q has started looking for other options. Now, former MNA Rana Shaukat Hayat Noon is reportedly leading the race to win official patronage for the district top slot. He is the father of PML-Q MPA Rana Ijaz Noon and the uncle of PML-Q MPA Rana Qasim Noon and Shujabad tehsil Nazim Rana Sohail Noon. His one son, Rana Shahzad, is married to the sister of Sindh governor Mohammadmian Soomro and the other to the sister of PML-Q MNA Khwaja Muhammad Sheraz of Dera Ghazi Khan. Shaukat Noon’s son-in-law Raees Mahboob of Rahimyar Khan enjoys cordial relations with Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. All this has made him the ultimate choice of the people currently at the helm of affairs.

There are rumours that his son, Rana Ijaz, is likely to be given a slot in the provincial cabinet. If it is true, the chances of senior Noon to become district Nazim may be diminished as part of unwritten power sharing formula of country’s ruling elite.

State Minister for Agriculture Sikandar Hayat Bosan had lost the election for district Nazim office against Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He was likely to field his brother, ex-MPA Shaukat Bosan, for the slot, but after getting share in power the chances of district Nazim office to go to the Bosans have reduced. However, the younger Bosan can be a candidate for the top slot of Multan Saddar tehsil which has been lying vacant after the resignation of Ahmad Mujtaba Gillani to contest the general election.

The race for the Nazim slot has taken another interesting turn with the reported opening of talks between the PML-Q leadership and former PML-N MNA Javed Ali Shah. Sources said Javed Shah had developed an understanding with the Bosans and Diwans to vie as a group for the district top slot. Diwan Ashiq’s younger brother Diwan Jaffar has returned as MNA on the PML-N ticket, while Javed Shah’s brother former Multan district council chairman Mujahid Ali Shah has also made entry to the provincial assembly on the PML-N ticket.

However, Diwan Ashiq himself is a candidate for the Nazim office. Earlier, he had supported Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his quest for the Nazim office with a condition that the latter would support him as his replacement if he resigned from the office. Diwan Ashiq group had won both in Shujabad and Jalalpur Pirwala tehsil of the district.

Naib Nazim Amer Dogar has also been projecting himself as a candidate for the office especially after the formation of P-5. The major hitch in his ambitious plan is reportedly his incarcerated father who has refused to give in the ‘accountability pressure’.

This is certain that though both the power houses of Qureshi and Gillani have not given names from their respective families for the top slot, their support will play a decisive role in the election for the next district Nazim. Political analysts predict that the Nazim will be either from the clans of Diwans, Noons or Syeds.