BAHAWALPUR: The ruling PML-N may not have the best of chances of making an impact in Bahawalpur’s local government polls due to groupings and rifts at various levels.

Other parties like the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) also have their problems but differences among the PML-N’s prominent figures are all too visible.

Many of the party’s MPs here have formed their own groups in their respective residential areas besides the factions of its former office-bearers and lawmakers and each of them is trying to strengthen his position to have a majority of his supporters elected and win the slots of chairman of district council and mayor of the would-be corporation.

Minister of State for Education Baleeghur Rehman has his support base here but Senator Saood Majeed, a prominent figure of Yazman, does not feel comfortable with him. The Saood Majeed group has retained its supremacy in the Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) election by defeating the Baleegh group. Both live in the city to enhance their respective strengths and give a tough time to each other in the upcoming elections.

Saood Majeed has deep political interests in Yazman tehsil, from where he had contested on a PML-N ticket for the National Assembly seat but was defeated by PML-Q’s Tariq Cheema in the 2013 elections. This time too (LG elections), both Tariq Cheema and Saood Majeed could lock horns in Yazman.

It is expected that a tough fight could be seen between the supporters of Saood Majeed and PML-N’s provincial parliamentary secretary MPA Khalid Jajja, and PML-Q’s Tariq Cheema and MPA Dr Muhammad Afzal. The biradari factor also counts.

In the city, the PML-N’s other leaders like Punjab Minister for Cooperatives Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar and former MPA Samiullah Chaudhry already have their own groups. Reports emerged that they were trying to capture the slots of the chairman (district council) and mayor (municipal corporation).

Malik Channar, who is enjoying the ministership in the cabinet of Shahbaz Sharif for the eighth consecutive year, stands a good chance of winning major support. He had been elected twice from the city’s provincial assembly seat, which is mainly known as Seraiki belt, where he is actively executing mega projects including the establishment of civil hospital and the construction of southern bypass besides the proposed children hospital on Jhangiwali Road. This may give a boost to his group in the election.

In Ahmedpur East tehsil and Uch Sharif (sub-tehsil), the groups of MNA Makhdoom Syed Ali Gilani (PML-N), MPAs Makhdoom Iftikhar Gilani of the Bahawalpur National Awami Party (BNAP), MPA Qazi Adnan Farid (PML-N), MNA Syed Najeeb Owaisi and Shoaib Owaisi have a large number of followers being the Sajjada Nasheen family of Khanqah Sharif. There are chances that the group members belonging to federal minister Mian Riaz Hussain Peerzada comprising his nephew MPA Kazim Peerzada and MPA Afzal Gill (PML-N) may play a decisive role in the district council and municipal committee Hasilpur elections.

Among other parties, the Jamaat-i-Islami seems active in various pockets of the district such as city, Yazman and Head Rajkan and may be able to bag seats in some of the areas.

The PTI also faces friction although Farzand Ali Goheer and his associates have managed to pull on the party despite opposition within the party itself and may be in a position to field some of the candidates. One of the PTI’s activists, Sheikh Abbas Raza, had recently parted ways owing to differences with other office-bearers.

Both JUI (Fazal Group) and JUP are in the contest but have not much support base.

Published in Dawn, October 5th , 2015

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