OKARA: The PML-N has won the four National Assembly and seven of the eight PP seats in close contests in the general election.

The only independent candidate to have won a provincial assembly seat is Jugnu Mohsin.

In NA-141, Chaudhry Nadeem Abbas won by getting 92,841 votes against PTI’s Samasam Ali Bokhari who secured 60,217 votes. An independent candidate who contested for the first time, Chaudhry Khalilur Rehman, chipped in with 57,859 votes. PTI’s former MPA Chaudhry Masood Shafqat Rubera bagged 33,040 votes as an independent candidate.

In PP-183, Chaudhry Javed Allauddin won the election for the fourth time. He got 42,426 votes against PTI candidate Mehr Muhammad Javed’s 29,693 votes. The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s Rana Farzand Naseem got 7,782 votes.

Jugnu Mohsin only independent candidate to have won a seat

Nadeem Abbas’s brother Chaudhry Ghulam Raza Rubera (PML-N) won PP-190 with 42,090 votes. Rai Hammad Aslam Kharal (PTI) got 41,141 votes. Here, independent candidate Rai Ali Noor, son of Rai Noor Muhammad Kharal, lost.

In NA-142, former MNA Chaudhry Riazul Haq Juj got 140,733 votes against PTI’s Rao Hassan Sikander who got 76,592 votes.

In this constituency falls two PP seats. In PP-188, PML-N’s Mian Yawar Zaman, a former provincial minister, is the winner for the fourth consecutive time. He got 54,707 votes while PTI’s Chaudhry Muhammad Abdullah Tahir lost by a margin of 2,548 votes.

PP-189 is where PML-N’s Chaudhry Muneebul Haq succeeded with 69,524 votes against PTI’s Chaudhry Muhammad Saleem Sadiq who got 40,477 votes.

In another important constituency, NA-143, the PML-N candidate won the election for the second consecutive time. Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan got 140,000 votes against his rival former MNA Syed Gulzar Sibtain who bagged 82,232 votes.

In PP-184, independent candidate Syeda Mamnat Mohsin (popularly known as Jugnu Mohsin) got 45,620 votes and defeated Hujra Shah Muqeem’s Raza Ali Gilani who got 30,740 votes. This family has been defeated in this election after 1985.

Raza Ali Gilani, a former provincial minister, had refused to take the PML-N ticket and opted to contest as an independent candidate and also lost in PP-185 against PML-N’s three-time winner Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain Chachar. Here, Rubeena Shaheen Wattoo, the daughter of Mian Manzoor Ahmed Khan Wattoo, also lost.

In PP-187, PML-N’s Malik Ali Abbas Khokhar had his third consecutive victory with 44,506 votes against PTI candidate Chaudhry Tariq Irshad Khan who got 36,900 votes.

In NA-144, PML-N’s Mian Muhammad Moeen Khan Wattoo got 108,770 votes against former federal minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Khan Wattoo who got 105,555 votes.

Under this NA falls PP-187 from where PML-N’s Mian Noorul Amin Nasir Wattoo, a nephew of Mian MoeenWattoo, got 47,763 votes against PTI’s Mian Khurram Jahangir Wattoo, son of Manzoor Wattoo, who got 39,620 votes.

The Wattoo and Gilani families faced setback in Okara. Mian Manzoor Ahmed Khan Wattoo had a successful political career from 1983 when he was elected chairman of the district council and remained the Punjab Assembly speaker three times from 1985. In 1993 he became the chief minister of Punjab.

In the 2002 general election, his daughter Rubeena Shaheen Wattoo was elected an MNA. In 2008, Mr Wattoo won the two NA seats in Deepalpur.

After defeating Mian Moeen Wattoo and Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Manzoor Wattoo vacated his hometown Wasaveywala, Haveli Lakha, seat from where his son Khurram Wattoo was elected an MNA in the by-poll.

In the 2013 general election, Mr Wattoo and his son Khurram were defeated by Moeen Wattoo who later vacated the PA seat. In the by-election Khurram Wattoo was elected MPA on the PPP ticket.

This time a round the Wattoo family refused to get the PPP tickets in spite of the fact that he was the central SVP of the PPP and Khurram president of PPP’s Sahiwal division and Jahanara Wattoo the spokesperson for the PPP Punjab chapter. Khurram and Rubeena contested from the PTI platform but lost.

Similarly, Raza Ali Gilani, whose father Syed Afzaal Ali Gilani was elected an MPA in 1985 non-party election and was elevated as provincial health minister, refused to get the PML-N ticket despite having a meeting with Shahbaz Sharif. Raza Gilani contested two PP seats 184 and 185 as an independent candidate and lost.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2018