FAISALABAD, Sept 12: Making a mockery of the local government system, introduced with tall claims of transferring power to the grassroots level, many well-off aspirants have filed nominations for the seats reserved for peasants and labourers, mostly to contest polls for naib-nazim slots in towns and tehsils of the district.

Under the recently amended local government rules, it has been made mandatory for an aspirant for the naib-nazim office to be a member of the house concerned.

In many cases, the candidates have big industrial units, commercial plazas, garment factories, trade houses, export business, power looms, chains of jewellry and cloth shops.

Similarly, a good number of landlords having hundreds of acres of land and influence in their respective villages have also filed papers for the seats reserved for peasants.

Interestingly, most of the ruling PML backed hopefuls for the naib-nazim slots do not fall in the category of labourers or peasants.

The PML supported candidate for district naib-nazim slot, Amjad Yaseen, is a former MNA and husband of Federal Parliamentary Secretary, Rifaat Amjad. The family is reportedly one of the richest in the district and owns a huge business concern, including garment factories and real estate.

Similarly, the family of Rizwan Zahid, who has been fielded by the ruling party for Jinnah Town naib-nazim slot, is in the hosiery and garment business for the last so many decades and running a number of industrial units in and around Faisalabad city.

The ruling party also backs Raja Mannan Ahmad for Iqbal Town naib-nazim slot who is nephew of MPA Dildar Ahmed Cheema and reportedly owns hundreds of acres of land in Dijkot area and possesses bungalows and commercial plazas in the city’s posh localities.

Nadeem Aftab Sindhu, a PML nominee for Lyallpur Town naib-nazim slot has a chain of hotels in America, being looked after by his elder brother. Likewise, Nadeem Sindhu is developing a multi-storey commercial plaza in a posh area of the city with huge investment. He is also running a major cable-network in the city involving an investment of millions of rupees.

PML nominee for Madina Town naib-nazim slot Ahmed Raza Bhalli was secretary of elite Chenab Club. Mr Bhalli is also an industrialist and has partnership in a known export and trade empire.

Meanwhile, 298 candidates have filed their nomination papers with the returning officers concerned for special seats of the city district government and towns councils here on Monday.

The candidates for the district government seats filed the papers before Additional District and Session Judge Raja Pervaiz Akhtar, while for the town councils, other judges have been notified as returning officers.

As many as 24 civil judges of the district have also been appointed presiding officers to conduct elections on 244 seats of women, labour and minority councillors of the local bodies to be held on Oct 6.