RAHIM YAR KHAN: PML-N candidate for PP-256 Khwaja Asghar Koreja has retired from the election race in protest against the local and divisional leadership of the party.

In a video message from his hometown of Shedani Shareef on Tuesday, Koreja said he would now support the PPP candidate Qazi Ahmed Saeed.

Asghar Koreja said he had association with the PML-N for the last 40 years and he had got a ticket due to Nawaz.

“But when party announced its support for Hamid Saeed Kazmi in NA-175, Kazmi took an independent candidate, Nazeer Khan Chandia, for PP-256 of his constituency.”

Koreja showed reservations also for PP-255 where Kazmi was supporting another independent candidate, Malik Azeem Bakhsh Naich.

Koreja said many of the PML-N candidates, including Sheikh Fayyazuddin in NA-176, Islam Aslam in PP-257, Nawaz Khan Rind in PP-259 were running the campaign against him continuously. He alleged PML-N divisional coordinator Saud Majeed in Bahawalpur did not pay him any heed when he (Koreja) told him about the whole situation. After this, he decided to quit election race.

Asghar Koreja is father-in-law of Khwaja Qutab Fareed Koreja, PPP candidate for NA-175, and now would run the campaign for him. In his own constituency (PP-256), he would also support PPP’s Qazi Ahmed Saeed.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2018