TOBA TEK SINGH: The PML-N will give tickets for three National Assembly (NA) and six Punjab Province (PP) seats to the incumbents for the July 25 general elections.

There were seven PP seats in the district until the recent delimitation and now PP-90 (Khikha-Chuttiana) of the district has been abolished.

The number of remaining six PA constituencies has been changed as PP-118 to 123 from PP-84 to 89. The abolished seat’s 60 per cent of the villages are now part of PP-120 (Rajana) while the remaining 40 per cent are in PP-121 (Toba Tek Singh city) and PP-123 (Pirmahal).

Old NA constituencies 92, 93 and 94 have also been replaced with new numbers of NA-111 (Gojra), NA-112 (Toba Tek Singh) and NA-113 (Kamalia-Pirmahal).

In the 2013 elections, the PML won the three NA and six PP seats while PP-84 (now PP-118) was won by Pakistan National Muslim League’s Bilal Asghar Warraich.

As there is no competition for PML-N tickets for the previously won three NA and all five PP seats, it means the party will again award ticket for NA-111 to Khalid Javed Warraich, NA-112 to Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and for NA-113 to Chaudhry Asadur Rehman Ramday.

Similarly, those who will get PML-N tickets for five PA seats are: PP-119 Malik Abdul Qadeer Awan, PP-120 retired Col Sarar Ayub Gadhi, PP-121 Amjad Ali Javed, PP-122 Begum Nazia Rehaeel Gujjar and PP-123 Pir Qutab Ali Baba, who was elected in by-polls in 2015 after the death of Ali Raza Shah.

The PML-N will give ticket for PP-118 (old PP-84) Khalid Javed Warraich, where his wife Begum Fauzia Khalid Warraich (now district council chairperson) had contested in 2013 on the PML-N ticket.

Khalid Warraich said he would contest simultaneously for PP-118 and NA-111.

The abolition of PP-90 seat will surely deprive peasants and working class of their sympathiser Mian Muhammad Rafiq who always remained vocal inside and outside the assembly for the rights of people.

He continued raising his voice in the assembly for the brick lining of Trimmu-Sidnhai link canal which has waterlogged thousands of acres.

He spoke for a raise in the wages of kiln and powerloom workers and also against police excesses in different cases during his two terms as MPA.

Kissan leader Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad said Rafiq was the only one MPA in his three tenures who travelled by buses, vans and trains to go to Lahore to attend assembly sessions. Mian Rafiq told Dawn he knew he would not be considered for the ticket for any other seat after his own seat had been abolished. For those reasons, he did not apply for the poll ticket for any seat.

He said he could not give attention to his health in the last 10 years, so he would now get proper treatment and although he had a lot of pressure from close aids and supporters to contest as an independent candidate for PP-120 but he would prefer to retire from electoral politics.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018