GUJRAT: Senior politician and head of Nawabzada family of Gujrat, ex-MNA Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul has linked the PML-N victory in NA-63 (Jalalpur Jattan-Tanda) in the coming election to issuance of party ticket to ex-MPA retired Maj Moin Nawaz Warraich for PP-30 (Jalalpur Jattan).

In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that he had already recommended to the PML-N central leadership to award the party ticket to Moin Nawaz for being “the most effective candidate” keeping in view his and his family’s decades-long participation in the local politics.

Mr Gul says Moin himself was elected as an MPA on the PML-N ticket in 2013, whereas his father Chaudhary Gulnawaz Warraich had also won from the the constituency twice and had defeated former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in Jalalpur Jattan constituency back in 1993.

He is of the view that Moin’s family had a good reputation and enjoys a large vote bank of the Jutt clan in the constituency, which makes him the most suitable aspirant for the PML-N ticket. Mr Gul, who himself is an PML-N aspirant for NA-63, say the party’s victory in this constituency depends on award of the ticket to Moin Nawaz .

However, as per local party sources, Ali Warraich of Kulachor, PML-N coordinator for youth affairs in Gujrat district, who has also applied for the ticket for PP-30, is also a potent candidate. Warraich, they say also enjoys the backing of the party’s former MNA and Gujranwala division president Abid Raza Kotla. These factors, they say, may give Warraich an edge over ex-MPA Moin Nawaz as a ticket aspirant.

Moreover, PML-N senior vice president Maryam Nawaz, had also appreciated Ali Warraich for holding an impressive ‘workers’ convention’ in Jalalpur Jattan, which she had addressed on his invitation.

The sources, however, say that many of the convention participants had strongly reacted when both Mr Gul and Moin Nawaz were not given a chance to address the event, while Maryam not even mentioned the Nawabzada family and other former lawmakers from the area. To register their protest, many participants had started leaving the venue a few minutes after Maryam began her speech, they add.

The sources say Mr Gul and other members of the Nawabzada family had later on lodged a strong protest with some party leaders for being ignored in their own constituency.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023