BAHAWALPUR, Sept 22: A majority of local residents disapprove of “imported” candidates for the three National Assembly seats from Bahawalpur district.
According to a survey conducted by this scribe, four candidates belonging to other parts of the country are in the race here. Taj Mohammad Langah of Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP) from Multan/Lodhran is in the run for NA-183 (Bahawalpur-I) and PML-Z’s Faaiz Rahim Khan, who is the son of Gen Rahim Khan (retired) and brother-in-law of Ijazul Haq, for NA-185 (Bahawalpur-III). Besides, there are Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP from Lahore and PML-Z president Ijazul Haq from Rawalpindi contesting the elections here.
Mr Langah belongs to Multan/Lodhran but has preferred to contest elections from Bahawalpur district’s Ahmedpur East Tehsil on the ticket of Grand National Alliance. He has not yet begun his own election campaign. However, he was in NA-187 (Bahawalpur-V) the other day to launch the campaign of his party’s candidate Shahzad Irfan Malik.
Mr Rahim’s whereabouts are still unknown to the voters of NA-185 (Bahawalpur-III) while Mr Ahsan’s campaign is being conducted by PPP office-bearers in Yazman Tehsil. Surprisingly, Mr Ijaz has neither visited the Yazman Tehsil so far nor any of his supporters has launched his campaign.
A majority of the people interviewed by this reporter viewed the presence of outsiders as an insult to their right to send representatives to the assemblies. The parties that awarded them party tickets from Bahawalpur’s constituencies were also criticized.
Mr Ijaz and his brother-in-law Mr Rahim seem to have lost interest in contesting the elections from here, as the former’s Arain Beradri in Yazman has fielded its own candidate for NA-187, Chaudhry Azhar Mahmood. Chaudhry Mahmood is a local and the son-in-law of PML-QA district president and former MPA Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal Arain who has been disqualified from elections due to the graduation condition.
Moreover, in two provincial assembly constituencies of Yazman Tehsil, PP-275 and PP-276, Arain Beradri has put up three candidates. It is obvious that there are sharp differences within the Beradri.
Yet another factor going against Mr Ijaz here is that the strong group of former town committee chairman Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar Arian has parted ways from the PML-N and joined the PPP to support district Nazim Tariq Cheema.
Arrival of Mr Langah in NA-183 may have been motivated by a majority of Seraiki-speaking voters in this constituency, which also covers some parts of Cholistan. Mr Langah has been visiting Cholistan to raise the issue of shortage of drinking water and other problems there from the platform of his party.
All the major political forces, the PML-N, the PML-QA and the MMA, have fielded candidates in the home constituency of Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, who has been elected to the National Assembly five times from here, but is now out of the political arena for being an undergraduate. Nawab Abbasi is supporting the candidate of his choice. There is general observation that Mr Langah has taken a risk in trying to break the stronghold of Nawab Abbasi by using the Seraiki card.
In NA-187, Mr Ahsan has been put up by district Nazim Tariq Cheema with the approval of his party’s high command, although he is also contesting from NA-142 (Lahore). There are feelings that Mr Ahsan has been brought here to preserve Mr Cheema’s seat.
However, Mr Ahsan explained to voters at a public meeting the other day that he was not an outsider but a son of the soil as his late father resided and owned land in Bahawalnagar. Anyway, a majority of local PPP workers and supporters are not against him.