GUJRAT: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that used to have a considerable electoral strength in Gujrat, could not even field its candidate in at least five constituencies, out of total 12, in the district for the February 8 elections.

The constituencies where none of the PPP-backed candidates filed the nomination papers include NA-62 (Sara-i-Alamgir-Kharian-Kotla) and both the Punjab Assembly constituencies – PP-27 (Sara-i-Alamgir) and PP-28 (Kotla), under that National Assembly seat. Similarly, there is no PPP-affiliated candidate in NA-63 (Jalalpur Jattan-Tanda) and its alliedPA seat, PP-29 (Tanda). However, a party worker from Jalalpur Jattan, Asghar Khokhar, has filed his nomination papers for PP-30.

In NA-64 (Gujrat city-Kunjah), Mubeena Arshad has filed her nomination papers and has also applied for the PPP ticket for the constituency.

However, some PPP sources say Ms Mubeena is not known to the local party workers, nor she has been politically active in the region.

Party ‘at its lowest’ in the district since 2008 polls

As per party sources, a senior party official from Gujranwala region had told PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at a meeting held in Lahore, to discuss the potential candidates, that the party did not have interested candidates in any of the 12 constituencies of Gujrat district.

The sources say the chairman had reportedly shown displeasure at this lack of interest, and issued directions to the officials of the party’s district organizations to file their own nomination papers where no strong PPP candidate was available. Bilawal had also prohibited fielding of “dummy candidates” just as a formality, they add.

Meanwhile, former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and his cousin and Kharian Tehsil ex-Nazim, Nadeem Asghar Kaira, are in the run for NA-65 (Lalamusa-Dinga) and PP-33 (Lalamusa), respectively, whereas another former minister, Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, has also filed papers for PP-33.

Tanveer Kaira had been contesting for the Lalamusa city provincial assembly seat since 2002 and won twice, but lost both 2013 and 2018 elections.

However, sources say that Nadeem Asghar Kaira, who was the only PPP-backed chairman elected in any municipal committee in Punjab in 2016 local bodies polls, is said to be the party’s favourite for PP-33.

A former union council Nazim, Mian Khalid Rafique Sekerewali, is being tipped as a PPP candidate from PP-34 (Dinga-Mungowal).

Meanwhile, Fakhar Mushtaq Pagganwala, a former PPP district president and the party old guard in Gujrat, has filed his nomination papers from PP-31 (Gujrat city) and is also an aspirant for the party ticket from the constituency. Azfar Badar Warraich and Samiullah Awan of the PPP have also filed their nomination papers for PP-32 (Kunjah).

A senior party official says that the local party workers and leaders in Gujrat tehsil are confused and eagerly await the senior leadership’s final nod about their candidates as reports of the PPP’s possible seat adjustment with the PML-Q are rife and the Q leadership is itself also creating such an impression.

The PPP leadership, he says, needs to clarify its position and policy on the issue to muster up workers’ wholehearted support for the party candidates as soon as possible. He lamented that this was for the first time since the 1985 non-party elections in the country that the PPP could not field its candidates on all NA and PA seats of Gujrat district where party had been bagging a sizeable number of seats until 2008.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2023