RAWALPINDI, March 9: Campaign for the District Public Safety Commission (DPSC) polls was in full swing on Saturday with various groups in the district council gearing up for the contest.

Elections for five seats of the DPSC are being held on Sunday at Liaquat Memorial Hall. Twenty-five members of the district council are in the run. The council members form the electoral college.

Polling will be held from 9am to 4pm. Groups in the district council throughout the day on Saturday continued visiting the council members to secure votes for their candidates. Several meetings were held with smaller groups in the council to bag their support.

The council members on the whole remained non-committed and are likely to take the final decision just before the start of the contest. Several contestants are also expected to announce their withdrawal from the contest before the start of the polling.

Rumours about withdrawal from contest of various candidates were rife, but, no confirmation could be obtained.

The contestants who were more likely to make up in the final five include Shaukat Aziz Bhatti, Chaudhry Mohammad Ayub, Abid Abbasi, Khawaja Munirullah Butt, Sheikh Faisal Ashfaq, Shahzad Niamat Satti, Shaukat Mehrban, Javed Mirza, Mrs Sarkar Abbas and Mrs Ayesha Tariq.

The two obvious divisions in the contest are the treasury and opposition benches. However, their fate depends on the votes of smaller local groups, minority members group, farmer and labour members and women members.

The Jamaat-i-Islami’s backed Al-Khidmat group’s vote bank will also be a serious factor in the final analysis if their candidate, Manzoor Akbar Turk, stands down.

However, till the filing of the report, the group that has almost 25 members’ support was serious in contesting the elections.

The Tehsil factor can also play a major role in the contest as most of the candidates are running their campaign on the Tehsil lines and the voters appear to be more inclined to vote in favour of the candidate from their Tehsil.

Meanwhile, the Awam Dost group, whose members defected to Raja Tariq Kiani’s side during the Nazim’s contest claimed to have regained the confidence of the defecting members. The Awam Dost group could not finalize its strategy all day long and its members were claiming that they would do so at the group’s dinner being hosted at Anjum Farooq Piracha’s residence Saturday night.

The biggest problem facing Awan Dost group was that none of its candidates were ready to step down. The group leaders wanted to contest on two seats, while the number of candidates was five.

The district administration did not clearly come out with its list of ‘favourites’, but its candidates were obvious from their affiliation with the administration.