KASUR, Aug 8: The next year’s general elections may bring about some changes on the horizon of the local politics. The ruling PML had fallen a prey to internal division which would erode its vote bank, these were the views of MPA and parliamentary secretary Muhammad Ahmed Khan and development minister Sardar Hassan Akhtar Mokal when they held an open court last month at Khudian. They represent the Khai group.

They had strongly opposed Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri and levelled corruption charges against him.

They claimed that Kasuri’s victory in NA-140 constituency was due to his coalition with them.

Both the MPAs alleged that the foreign minister had embezzled billions of rupees from the president’s fund earmarked for the development of Kasur. They alleged that Kasuri had received heavy commission by giving contract to a notorious PWD company.

Similar views had been expressed by parliamentary secretary M. Ahmad Khan at a press conference held a few days ago at the DCO office, which has become a centre of PML political activities in the district.

Bukhtiar Kasuri, who was contacted at his Lahore residence, denied the charges levelled against his brother.

About the allegation of getting a kickback from the PWD, he said there was no truth in it as his brother had already changed the executing agency for its poor performance.

Regarding the extension of support to Mr Kasuri by the two MPAs in the last general election, he claimed that it was on record that his brother’s vote bank was larger (an upward of 5,000 votes) than the Khai group.

The fault, he said, lied with Khurshid Kasuri who let such corrupt people attached with him, now denting his cause.

Bukhtiar Kasuri alleged that the chief minister had insulted the mandate of the ARD by creating hurdles in getting approved the district government budget.

Despite having four MNAs out of five and eight MPAs out of 10 in the previous elections, he said the ruling PML had to face defeat in district and tehsil assemblies, public safety commission and the CIDA, which was enough to show that it was fast losing its credibility in the district.

Political pundits view the sympathy of the brother of the foreign minister with ARD’s district nazim Rana Hayat and tehsil nazim Agha Naveed Rizvi from another angle.

They said that Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri was trying to kill two birds with one stone. They believed that the foreign minister himself was in the president camp while his brother had his inclination toward the ARD, a situation not desirable for both of them.

In NA-139, Bukhtiar Kasuri had a week position against Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain (elected MNA) of PPP with 26,000 votes and Mian Waseem of PML-N with 24,000 votes in the last elections.

While in NA-140, Khurshid Kasuri will face PPP’s Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali, former foreign minister, and Maulana Lakhvi of Jamiat Ahle Hadith, who had lost the last elections with a narrow margin.

Sources said that district and tehsil nazims, belonging to the ARD, were to join the PML a couple of months ago during the chief minister’s visit to Kasur. In his schedule, the chief minister also had to announce a number of development projects in a public meeting.

But the chief minister had to pull out of that deal when MPAs and MNAs of his party threatened to resign if district and tehsil nazims were accepted in the party fold.

Local political circles are of the view that the Kasuris would be in sound position at a time when the PML has been divided in the district if ARD politicians had been allowed to join the ruling PML.

Showing a broader political vision, Bukhtiar Kasuri is still in the good books of the ARD, which enjoys the public mandate.

Most of political observers are unanimous in their opinion that President Pervez Musharraf should play his role in uniting the PML in the Kasur district to avoid imminent political debacle of the party in the coming general elections.