GUJRAT: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has made two controversial nominations on the key posts of party in Gujrat district as the party figures having history of being disqualified by court over fake degree are made district president and general secretary.

Punjab PML-N President Rana Sanaullah on Friday announced the nomination of Tahirul Mulk as Gujrat district president and Haji Nasir Mahmood as general secretary whereas former state minister for ports and shipping Jaafar Iqbal Fatta Bhand was made senior vice president.

A senior PML-N leader and former MNA Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull has reportedly conveyed his reservations to the senior party leadership on these nominations, and sources said he lodged the complaint for not being consulted prior to making such decisions of party nominations in his home district of Gujrat.

Tahirul Mulk, also a maternal nephew of Mr Gull, had been the adviser to then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif in the last era of PML-N in Punjab, however, Mr Mulk had been disqualified from the court of law for having a fake degree when he had filed nomination papers to contest the general elections on a Punjab Assembly seat in 2008.

Similarly, Haji Nasir Mahmood who is appointed as district general secretary, had been disqualified twice -- once from the Punjab Assembly seat of Gujrat city as an MPA in 2010 and then he was de-seated from the slot of Gujrat Municipal Corporation mayor in 2019 on the basis of fake degree.

Some local party workers have also expressed wonder on nominations of two disqualified figures on the key party posts in Gujrat district and while talking to this scribe they were of the view that the senior party leadership should have discussed the matter of disqualification of these officials to avoid any kind of embarrassment.

However, Jaafar Iqbal, a former state minister who is nominated as SVP in the district, told Dawn by telephone that he had been taken into confidence by the party leadership over these nominations and he would accept whatever decision the party had made.

Lauding the nominations, he said the party had availed best choices for both the key slots as Tahirul Mulk and Nasir Mahmood were dedicated party workers who would often give most of their time to the party affairs whereas both belonged to the district headquarters of Gujrat which would prove beneficial for the party cause.

Asked why party did not consider the disqualification issue as well as Mr Gull was not taken into confidence, he said that only the senior leadership could look into these things as he had already given his suggestions over the reorganization and most of his suggestions had been considered.

Ex-MNA Malik Hanif Awan remained the Gujrat PML-N district president for at least 19 years but he showed his annoyance with the party by not applying for party ticket due to differences with Hamza Shahbaz’s policies in Gujrat during the party era in Punjab and Mr Awan contested as an independent candidate against PML-N MNA Abid Raza Kotla in NA-71 in 2018 polls.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020