LAHORE, Oct 8: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid have decided to woo the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and the Jamaat-i-Islami to make a larger ‘anti-PML-N’ alliance for by-polls in six constituencies of Punjab.
The PPP and the PML-Q also announced on Monday their joint candidates for NA-162 Sahiwal-III (Zahid Iqbal), NA-107 Gujrat VI (Rehman Naseer), PP-144 Lahore-VIII (Zahid Zulfiqar), PP-92 Gujranwala II (Lala Asad), PP-122 Sialkot II (Amir Raja) and PP-26 Jehlum III (Arif Chaudhry). Rehman Naseer and Arif Chaudhry belong to PML-Q while the other four hail from the PPP.
The by-elections to these seats, which fell vacant after the Supreme Court disqualified the legislators for holding dual nationality, will be held on Nov 17.
The PPP lost one candidate (from NA-162) and PML-N five to the dual nationality verdict. The last date for filing nomination papers is Tuesday (today).
The PPP and PML-Q have awarded tickets to all six candidates under an agreed formula between them.
“The PPP and Q’s winner of 2008 election from any constituency in Pakistan will automatically be the joint candidate in the next general election. In case both parties are loser, then the runner-up candidate either of PPP or Q will be the first claimant to the seat,” PPP Punjab Information Secretary Amir Raja read from the agreed formula for Dawn.
The PPP and PML-Q leaders in their recent meetings in Lahore on seat-adjustment formula for by-and-general elections have also finalised a strategy to defeat the PML-N in the November by-polls from urban Punjab where it has a stronghold.
“Both parties have decided to form an unannounced anti-PML-N alliance with the support of PTI and JI at local level in these constituencies to defeat the PML-N,” Mr Raja said, adding the PPP-Q joint candidates had been given the go ahead to drum up local support of the PTI and JI. The PML-N in 2008 elections had won these constituencies with heavy margin.
“Since the PTI has announced not to contest any by-poll it doesn’t want the PML-N being its first rival in Punjab to win the by-election or win with a big margin,” said Mr Raja, who is also a candidate for PP-122.
He said the by-polls were different from that of general ones and the PPP and PML-Q would manage to forge an ‘anti-PML-N’ alliance, making the elections very interesting. “The PML-N will come to know about its popularity graph in the by-polls,” he said.
Fawad Chaudhry, adviser to the prime minister, told Dawn that the joint candidate of PPP and Q had a great chance of winning in Jhelum as the PML-N was divided into two factions.
“We will take local workers of PTI onboard without going into formal talks with their leadership to defeat the PML-N in the by-polls,” Mr Chaudhry said.