KASUR: The only woman aspirant for the PPP ticket in the party’s local chapter on Tuesday announced that she would contest the election for NA-137 as an independent candidate.

She was reportedly denied a ticket by the party which reportedly gave a ticket for the constituency to its stalwart, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed.

Now, Mrs Masood Bhatti of the PTI (PP-175) is the only woman in the entire district who is contesting the election.

Though the PPP is yet to announce its tickets, certain candidates had been clearly told in a meeting in Lahore on Monday regarding their nominations.

Nasira Meo, an expatriate Pakistani and old worker of the PPP, had applied for NA-137, NA-138 and PP-182 but she was not given ticket for any of the constituencies. After being disappointed, she announced to contest the election from NA-137 as an independent candidate and oppose PPP’s Manzoor Ahmed.

Nasira had contested 2008 general election from NA-142 (Pattoki) on the PPP ticket and secured over 30,000 votes. She also contested 2013 general election from old NA-138 and had secured over 24,000 votes. Now, old NA-138 had been divided into new NA-137 and 138 according to new delimitation. New NA-137 is the hometown of both Nasira and Manzoor.

Nasira Meo claimed that she had her clan and vote bank in eight union councils in the villages near the border and the Mustafabad Muncipal Committee. They include Badian, Chhatianwala, Badarpur, Leel, Pano, Vehgal, Katlohi, Vern, Vara Daleep Singh, Ibrahimpura, Bhallo, Khara and Mustafabad.

A PPP worker, requesting anonymity, said Nasira decided to contest the election from NA-137 because Manzoor had opposed her in all the three constituencies, namely NA-137, 138 and PP-182.

It was also alleged Manzoor managed to get party tickets for his blue-eyed, namely Muhammad Imran Naul for NA-138 and Muhammad Sharif Dogar for PP-182, while he himself was contesting for NA-137.

According to the local political pundits, Nasira could harm Manzoor and pave the way for PTI candidate Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali. They think both Manzoor and Aseff were from the Arian clan and the latter would snatch Manzoor’s vote while Nasira would also deprive him of Meo clan vote that were earlier cast in his favour.

Manzoor would also face the opposition of Muhammad Hussain Dogar, former PPP district president, who is now in the PTI. Mr Dogar had contested the last general election from Kasur and opposed Manzoor. Dogar would use his trump card of Dogar clan against Manzoor.

It is important to mention that both Aseff and Dogar had differences with Manzoor Ahmed while the three were in the PPP.

Manzoor Ahmed is already lacking the support of strong PP candidates in his PP-174, PP-175, and PP-176 that are in his constituency. All the three candidates are new entrants in politics as PPP is in want of suitable electables in the areas.

In PP-174, the PPP is likely to award ticket to Muhammad Asif Khokhar in for whereas Maqbool Ahmed Tollo would contest election in PP-175 and Munir Ahmed Adv (brother of Manzoor Ahmed) in PP-176 seasoned candidates of of the PTI and PML-N.

Manzoor was not available for comments despite repeated calls.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018