The PML-N on Thursday swept elections of the local bodies’ heads, with winning all contested seats for chairmen of district councils (except for Attock, Pakpattan and Jhelum), municipal mayors and almost all the 171 municipal committees.
Pakistan Muslim League-N has made a clean sweep in Multan district council and Municipal Corporation Multan by defeating PTI & PPP candidates .It has annexed the top slots of chairman, four vice chairmen of District Council, Mayor, two deputy mayors of Municipal Corporation. The polling was held amid tight security on Thursday. District Magistrate has imposed section 144 in the jurisdiction of polling stations to prevent any untoward incidents on Thursday.Former Punjab Minister for prisons Ch.Abdul Waheed Arain 's younger Ch.Naveed Ahmed Arain was elected as Mayor by bagging 71 out of 91 total registered votes while PTI's Adnan Dogar got 19 votes. Haji Saeed Ahmed Ansari and Munawar Ehsan Qureshi have been elected as Deputy Mayors.The total numbers of 138 voters polled their votes in Multan district council chairman election. The PML-N candidate Dewan Abbas Bukhari has won the slot and he secured 99 votes out of out of 142 votes. The PTI candidate Omer Farooq and PPP candidate Ghulam Dastgir Athangal received 14 and 25 votes respectively. The polling held at Bosan Town hall in a peaceful environment.The PML-N candidates Sarfraz Khor ,Zulfikar Dogar, Rana Shehzad Ahmed Noon, and Syed Wajid Ali Shah were elected as vice chairmen of district council Multan. The business community has felicitated the newly elected Mayor Ch. Naveed Arain, Deputy Mayors Haji Saeed Ahmed Ansari, Munawar Ehsan Qureshi, Chairman District council Dewan Abbas Bukhari and Vice chairman Sarfraz Khor,Zulfikar Dogar,Rana Shehzad Ahmed Noon,and Syed Wajid Ali Shah and expressed hope that they would put the Multan district on the path of development and prosperity. Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi President of MCCI congratulated them on their success and said that People have acknowledged the policies of Muslim League-Nawaz.
The PML-N left only Attock for the PML-Q, where Aimen Tahir of the PML-Q managed to defeat Ahsan Khan – nephew of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhy Nisar Ali Khan – of the PML-N.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Aslam Sukhera, in a major upset, defeated the ruling party man for the Pakpattan District Council chairman. Jhlem was another district where an independent candidate, backed by a PML-N MNA, clinched the district council chairman seat from the PML-N ticket holder.
The PML-N, however, avenged the humiliation in Gujrat, where it defeated Sumera Elahi – sister of PML-Q head Chaudhry Shujaat.
In Faisalabad, the party managed to grab the city where the faction of Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah won the day, defeating Federal State Minister Abid Sher Ali’s group.
It also won Rahim Yar Khan, where the PPP apparently had more votes in the electoral college and had fielded Makhdoom Ali Mahmood, son of former Punjab governor and PPP South Punjab President Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood. Azhar Leghari of the PML-N managed to defeat the politically powerful Makhdoom, but not without allegations of horse-trading. Chaudhry Muneer, father-in-law of the daughter of Maryam Safdar, is alleged to have played important role in the win.
The metropolitan corporation of Lahore had already gone to the PML-N, when the entire contesting panel of the PTI was disqualified when it failed to complete the panel; it could only field seven candidates against the required strength of 12. The rest of 10 municipal corporations also fell to the PML-N candidates in Thursday elections.
For 182 municipal committees, only 170 were contested on Thursday.
Interestingly, two former assembly members, who were disqualified on different grounds also found their way back to active politics. Sumera Malik, niece of former president Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, was disqualified for dual nationality, but was elected the Khushab District Council chairperson. Haji Nasir, who was not found graduate and consequently disqualified, also made entry to the Gujrat municipal corporation.
Those grabbing the top district councils are kin of the ruling party’s parliamentarians. Gul Hamid Rokari is former provincial minister from Mianwali; Afzal Tarar from Hafizabad is the father of minister for state for health Sara Afzal Tarar and Rana Atique is son of Rana Tanveer, federal minister for production. He won the Sheikhupura District Council chairman office.
Though expected, but it has almost been complete rout of the PPP. So has been the fate of the PTI.
