RAWALPINDI: Who is to decide the name of the Rawalpindi mayor?

Sources say Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will call the shots. 

The sources in the ruling party added that Sardar Naseem Khan was a strong candidate for mayorship but the final decision would be taken either by Chaudhry Nisar or Shahbaz Sharif.

They said the Punjab chief minister usually acted on the recommendations of the interior minister in party organisation and the final decision about the mayor would be made by the interior minister.

A senior leader of the ruling party told Dawn that there were three candidates for the slot: PML-N metropolitan president Sardar Naseem Khan, former tehsil nazim Sajjad Khan and Malik Sultan Mehmood.

“The party is likely to make Sardar Naseem the mayor because of his closeness to Chaudhry Nisar and the other two will be deputy mayors,” he said.

Under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013, there will be two deputy mayors in the municipal corporation. If the population of a city is more than two million, the number of deputy mayors will be raised to three.

He said after the ruling party won more than 35 seats in the city, some local leaders wanted to become the mayor by joining the house on special seats. They also contacted the party leadership to issue an ordinance amending the act.

He said a conspiracy theory was also in the air that the party may give a surprise while announcing the name of an outsider as the mayor after making an amendment to the Act.

When contacted, PML-N former MNA Malik Shakil Awan said the party leadership would decide about the name of the mayor but Sardar Naseem was on top of the list. He said key decisions were made by party’s Punjab and central organisation after taking all the local leaders on board.

“Five independent candidates joined the PML-N after which the party has 38 seats of chairmen and will easily elect the mayor, deputy mayors, women, minority, technocrat and youth members.”

He said the PML-N won 22 seats from the city areas of NA-55 and 16 seats from NA-56.

The party is waiting for a green signal from its leadership to announce the name of the mayor soon after the members take oath, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015