Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) turned out victorious in the final phase of Punjab Local Bodies elections on Thursday as it secured 27 seats out of total 35 including district councils, municipal corporations and municipal committees while seven independent candidates were declared successful across the province.
Lahore Mayor Colonel Mubisher Javed (Retd) and Deputy Mayor Waseem Qadir have already been elected unopposed. According to the Election Commission sources, the elections could not be held in Kotli Sattian District due to incomplete electoral college while the candidates in Kallar Syedan and Khanpur withdrew their candidates. In total, chairmen of 35 district councils were elected from the province besides 67 vice chairmen. Two of them have been elected unopposed while total 83 candidates were in the run. Some 11 positions of mayors and 23 of deputy mayors were contested for municipal committees where 182 chairmen and as many vice chairmen were elected. As many as 56 of them were elected unopposed while 328 were elected through electoral process.
In Faisalabad, the ruling party faced the biggest challenge where Malik Razaq won the seat of mayor and bagged 105 votes while the candidate of Abid Sher group got only 73 votes. Two powerful groups - one led by Rana Sana Ullah, provincial Law Minister, and the other by Abid Sher Ali, State Minister for Water and Power - were at loggerheads.
It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif awarded a party ticket to Malik Raziq who is the younger brother of Muhammad Nawaz Malik, PML-N MPA from Faisalabad. Due to strong protest and threats to leave the ruling party by Abid Sher Ali, the PM withdrew the party ticket and left the ground for open contest.
Attock District witnessed an upset where Amaan Waseem, nephew of former prime minister Chaudhry Sujahat Hussain, defeated the nephew of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
In Rahim Yar Khan, Ali Mehmood Mukdoom, son of former governor Punjab Mukdoom Ahmad Mehmood, was defeated by the ruling party candidate Azhar Lagari, brother of Arshad Legari, PML-N MNA. In Gujrat District, Sumera Elahi, sister of Chaudhry Sujahat Hussain and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain were defeated by the ruling party candidate Muhammad Ali.
In Lala Musa, PPP candidate Nadeem Asghar Kaira, nephew of former federal information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, defeated the ruling party candidate. Afzal Tarar, father of Federal Minister Saira Afzal Tarar, was elected chairman of district council Hafizabad while Sumara Malik, former federal minister and nephew of former president of Pakistan Farooq Leghari, became chairman district Council Khushab as an independent candidate.
In Narowal District, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and PML-N Spokesman Danyal Aziz nurtured grudges against each other and led their respective groups. Ahmad Iqbal, son of Dr Ahsan Iqbal, was declared unopposed as chairman district council.
In Sialkot, Hina Warriach, daughter of Arshad Warrich MPA, was elected as chairman district council Sialkot while in Sheikupura, Rana Atique Afzal, nephew of Federal State Minister for Defence and Production Rana Tanveer was declared as chairman district council. In Gujranwala and Sargodha, PML-N candidates Sheikh Sawat Akram and Asim Sher Maken were declared as chairmen district councils, respectively.
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