MULTAN, June 23: A union council Nazim was shot dead here on Wednesday evening by five assailants over electoral rivalry. Rana Shamshad, the Nazim of union council No 47, was sitting at his office when the assailants opened fire at him. He was rushed to the Nishter Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The deceased was said to be a staunch supporter of the PML-N. In the last general elections held in October 2002, he supported PML-N's acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi against PPPs Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

On the election day, a PPP activist and his opponent in the local government politics, Ali Sher, opened fire at him shortly after exchanging hot words at the polling station of their area.

Rana Shamshad survived the attack, but his friend Shafi Arain allegedly gunned down Ali Sher near octroi post No. 14 when he was fleeing after attacking Shamshad. Ali Sher's heirs had lodged a case against injured Shamshad and his son, Imran.

The police, however, exonerated Shamshad of the charge in their investigations. Before breathing his last after the second attack, Rana Shamshed had reportedly identified two of the five assailants as Ali Shan and Ibraheem alias Madni. Both the identified assailants were said to be the sons of deceased Ali Sher. Police have yet to arrest any of the accused.

BAILS GRANTED: A local court granted interim bails to nine PPP leaders and workers on Wednesday in a case registered against them for obstructing motorcade of federal finance minister Shaukat Aziz.

Giving pre-arrest bails up to June 28, additional district and sessions judge Chaudhry Muhammad Saddique directed the PPP activists to join the police investigation. Those granted pre-arrest bails are former federal minister Mukhtar Awan, Punjab Bar Council member Habibullah Shakir, Khwaja Rizwan Alam, Tariq Raza Khan, Saleem Raja, Kunwar Zahid Khan, Saleem Shahzad, Manzoor Qadri and Saleemur Rehman Mayo.

The Cantonment police had registered a case under section 341 PPC and MPO-16 against some 15 PPP activists on Tuesday on the report of a security branch official of the district police.

Four of the nominated accused - Hashim Khan Baber, Malik Asad, Rao Sajid Ali and Ishrat Abbas Naqvi, were rounded up the same day. The judge, however, sent the four arrested activists to jail on judicial remand for June 28.

The minister was here on Sunday last to launch the Kissan credit card introduced by a private bank. When he approached near the venue of the card's launching ceremony, some activists of PPP and PSP intercepted the minister's vehicle on Abdali Road near the Multan press club.

The PPP and PSP activists were protesting against the deteriorating law and order situation in the country and 'step-motherly' treatment meted out to the Seraiki area in the federal and provincial budgets for the year 2004-05, respectively. Some of the protesters allegedly punched the minister's vehicle.

No untoward incident had happened as the protesters had dispersed peacefully after chanting anti-government slogans for a while. Later talking to newsmen, the minister had said that he did not mind the incident as it was their (political activists) democratic right.

Meanwhile, Multan PPP organized a protest rally here on Wednesday at the Kutchery Chowk to condemn continuous 'atrocities' against the party leadership and workers. Former MPA Khursheed Khan was leading the protesters.

He said the registration of the case only against PPP workers was a clear evidence of the anti-PPP stance of the government as the PSP workers were also there when the minister's motorcade passed by the MPC.