SIALKOT, Aug 8: Like many other districts in the province,biradris have also been a major consideration for various political parties while choosing candidates for the upcoming local polls here.
The candidates belonging to Gujjar, Jat, Araien, Shaikh and Kashmiribiradris are being backed by political parties in the 17 urban and 33 rural union councils of Sialkot tehsil.
The ruling PML is divided into five main groups in the district, respectively led by National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, Chaudhry Akhtar Variyo, Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema, former district nazim Mian Naeem Javaid and federal parliamentary secretary for cabinet division Dr Fardous Ashiq Awan.
These groups have fielded their own candidates in Sialkot tehsil’s all 50 UCs and are using political influence for their victory. Local politics has always influenced the election of other tehsils and district nazim.
According to the independent political observers, these divisions in the ruling PML ranks have confused the party’s voters, while other political parties, including PML-N, PPP and MMA are taking maximum advantage of the situation, which may adversely affect the League’s vote bank.
The Variyo family is still strong in Sialkot’s politics despite several of its members facing trials in NAB courts. The Vairyos still enjoy the support of Gujjar biradri in the rural and even in some urban areas of the tehsil. The family had played a pivotal role in the victory of PML-backed candidates during the 2001 local polls in the district.
The PML’s provincial and central leadership had assigned the task of uniting the party in the district to NA Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, but his efforts remained fruitless.
Local political pundits say that the speaker could do nothing except getting his elder son Aamir Ameer Hussain appointed as PML’s district president. The appointment has paved the way for Chaudhry Ameer’s family’s political monopoly, they say.
It is also believed that the family of Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema and his younger brother former tehsil nazim Muhammad Akmal Cheema promoted the biradri culture in the district’s politics during the last four years.
The Cheemas struggled hard to rule the Sialkot politics with the help of Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and other Chaudhries of Gujrat. But they could not flourish politically despite enjoying close links with senior local politicians like Chaudhry Akhtar Ali Variyo and Chaudhry Ameer Hussain in the past.
Another heavyweight and former district nazim Mian Naeem Javaid is accused of employing favouritism during his term in the office. Independent observers say that though Mian Javaid launched some uplift works in the district’s rural as well as urban areas, he allegedly withheld the development funds of those UCs which were headed by opposition nazims.
The Chaudhries of Gujrat are also a potent factor in the district’s politics, as many local industrialists-turned-politicians claim to have close links with them. The differences among PML ranks also paved the way for interference of the Chaudhries in the district’s politics.
Sources say that Chaudhries are in close touch with Chaudhry Ameer Hussain and Variyo family head Akhtar Ali Variyo. The nomination of PML-backed candidates for the slots of district and tehsil nazims in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur will be made on merit and with the consultation of some senior and influential politicians, they say.
Meanwhile, the local leadership of MMA, PML-N and PPP have expressed grave concern over the rising role of Chaudhries in the district’s politics. They allege that the Chaudhries were using their political influence for the success of PML-backed candidates in the Aug 18 polls. They apprehend that in these circumstances, the polls could not be held in a fair and transparent manner in the district.
On the other hand, the PML-N has also been divided into three main groups in the district, being led by MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif, ex-provincial minister Ejaz Ahmad Sheikh and Imtiazuddin Dar, while the PPP remains divided into two groups in Sialkot city.
The local leadership of PML-N and PPP have repeatedly alleged that the entire government machinery was busy in the election campaign of PML-backed candidates in the district.
PML-N district president Idrees Ahmad Bajwa and PPP city president Chaudhry Zahid Bashir told journalists that the candidates belonging to their parties were being harassed.
They said that they had sent several complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding the alleged pre-poll rigging by PML, urging it to take serious note.
PPP’s district leader and ex-opposition leader in district assembly Qamar Abbas Chand and other city leaders of the party, including Khawaja Fiaz Lone, Malik Ahmad Din, Yunas Mehboob, and others alleged that Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, along with three state and three provincial ministers were using all government resources in the support of the PML-backed candidates for different LB seats and the opposition candidates were being forced to withdraw from the polls.