SARGODHA: The returning officer for NA-90 has called Dr Nadia Aziz, a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) aspirant from the constituency, on Thursday (today) to explain why her nomination papers should not be rejected.

Zafar Iqbal submitted an application raising an objection that Dr Aziz was the secretary of Red Crescent and chairman of Punjab Horticulture Authority hence she could not contest the election for at least two years after remaining an employee of government-run department. Dr Nadia’s nomination papers from the constituency were accepted by the returning officer on Monday.

Another party aspirant for NA-90, PTI North Punjab Vice President Mumtaz Ahmad Kahloon, had earlier launched a campaign against Dr Nadia when she had joined the party after abandoning the PML-N and expressed her willingness to contest from NA-90.

Such internal rifts among workers of the PTI and PML-N were growing as workers of both parties were dissatisfied with the likely candidates of their respective parties and decided to launch campaigns against all such aspirants.

The PML-N workers were annoyed with the decision of party’s district president Shah Nawaz Ranjha for ignoring Pir Ameenul Hasnat, Chaudhry Hamid Hameed and Shafqat Abbas Baloch – the PML-N winners in 2013 elections – and reportedly recommended Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, Dr Liaquat Ali and Syed Hasnain Shah for party tickets from NA-88 Sargodha I, NA-90 Sargodha II and NA-92 Sargodha V, respectively.

If the PML-N leadership accepted the proposal of its district president, it will be difficult for the party to retain any of the three seats from Sargodha district as the disgruntled former MNAs have a large following in their respective constituencies.

Political analysts are of the view that PML-N had lost its grip over the district however if it acted prudently while distributing party tickets and annoyed very few workers, it will

definitely get at least three National Assembly seats and almost half of the provincial assembly ones.

PTI leader Nadeem Afzal Chan, who had won from NA-88 in 2008, but lost in 2013 as the PPP nominee, was being considered the favourite to win from the constituency. PPP nominee Tasneem Qureshi was being seen as the possible winner from NA-90.

Transgender person Naina Laal has also filed nomination papers from NA-90 and PP-77 and was attracting a considerable number of people in corner meetings. Some people have also launched a campaign to collect donations to support her.

From NA-92, PTI has fielded former Federal Investigation Agency additional director investigation Zafar Ahmad Qureshi instead of his brother former MNA Mazhar Ahmad Qureshi, and it might not be easy to defeat him.

Though PTI workers were annoyed with their leadership for awarding tickets to those who joined the party only recently, but the fact is only these ticket-holders had the power to win a seat for the party otherwise none of the old workers had the potential to win even a single seat in the district.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2018