BAHAWALPUR: Most of the candidates are coming to the offices of returning officers along with a large number of supporters who garland them and dance to drumbeat once the nominations are filed.

Convoys of supporters are creating parking issues around RO offices as several roads remained blocked.

According to reports collected from districts of Bahawalpur, Lodhran and Vehari , hundreds of candidates who filed their nomination papers on Friday belonged to almost all the parties, including PTI, PML-N, IPP, PPP and TLP.

The nomination papers were filed for 11 NA and 22 Punjab Assembly seats in the three districts .

Prominent among them were IPP’s chief Jahnagir Tareen for NA-155, PML-N’s Mian Riaz Hussain Peerzada for NA-165 and his nephew Mian Kazim Hussain Peerzada (a former MPA) for PP-245, former PTI divisional president and presently with IPP Syed Tahsean Nawaz Gardezi for (PP-245), former MNAs Makhdum Muhammad Ali Gilani from PPP and his stepbrother Syed Sami Gilani,who had voted against his former leader Imran Khan in the no-confidence move and Nawab Bahawal Khan Abbasi, scion of Nawab Abbasi Family, for NA-166 and former PML-N minister Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar for NA-168 and his son Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2023