FAISALABAD, Aug 19: Two of the six tehsil Nazimeen in the district have decided to quit their local government offices to contest elections for National and Provincial Assembly seats.
Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan, Pakistan People’s Party’s former district secretary and a former MPA, who was elected Nazim of Samundri tehsil plans to run from NA-79. He has reportedly been awarded the party ticket.
Misbahuddin Zaigham, who was elected the Saddar tehsil Nazim, with the support of PPP and Pakistan Muslim Leage, too, has decided to resign and run for a provincial assembly seat.
Zahid Nazir, the district Nazim, is not contesting but has reportedly obtained PML (Quaid-i-Azam) tickets for his brother, Asim Nazir, for National Assembly and his wife for Provincial Assembly.
Several union council Nazims and Naib Nazims, too, could resign in a couple of days as political parties complete short-listing of candidates for award of tickets.
Sources said the Nazims concerned have informed the district Nazim and the Punjab governor Punjab about their plans.
Most of the local government Nazims and councillors are willing to take part in elections from the platform of opposition parties, particularly the PPP Parliamentarians, the PML (Nawaz) and the Muthaida Majlis-i-Amal. Almost all Nazims and councillors are likely to campaign for their favourite candidates in violating of instructions issued by the Election Commission.
INTELLIGENCE: Various intelligence agencies have started collecting information on activities, contacts with government officials, sources of income and living standards as well as party affiliations of potential candidates. The information would be available to the returning officers during scrutiny of nominations.
A source in local offices of the Election Commission told Dawn election cells had been constituted by heads of secret agencies at district level to gather information about the nominees.
For the first time, returning officers and assistant returning officers are empowered to reject nominations on the basis of reports received from ‘any source.’ Opposition politicians fear that the discretion would be used to block their way.
The candidates are required to provide their tax returns, disclose sources of income, details of property and gold ornaments owned by the family and party affiliation.
Sources said the secret agencies would submit their reports by the Aug 24 deadline for filing nominations. Commenting on the situiation, a senior lawyer, who is also a candidate for a Provincial Assembly seat, said giving the power of suo motu rejection of nominations to the returning officers was a violation of fundamental rights.
Election cells set up by the district police officer, the district coordination officer and the district Nazim are also collecting information about candidates.
PML-QA CANDIDATES: The PML-QA will announce the final list of its candidates for national and provincial assembly seats before Aug 24 after interviewing the aspiring candidates.
This was stated by former MPA and PML-QA central leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan while talking to newsmen here on Monday after presiding over a meeting of ticket-seekers.
He said only honest and sincere party leaders would be awarded tickets after consulting with office-bearers of tehsils and districts.