KASUR
It is a two-way race in all of the provincial assembly seats in Kasur between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI). While all of N-League contestants have won elections on the party’s tickets in the past, several of PTI candidates, equally experienced in parliamentary politics, have recently jumped ship from PPP and Q-League.
The far-right Tehrik-e-Labbaik has emerged as the third political force, fielding well-funded and influential candidates in five of the district’s nine constituencies.
PP 174 Kasur-I comprises areas that fall in the Kasur municipal committee.
Both PML-N and PTI have fielded candidates from the influential Ansari clan.
PML-N’s Naeem Safdar Ansari faces a plea against his nomination papers pending hearing at the Lahore High Court over his participation in a rally against the judiciary in the wake of the Panama Papers verdict. Usman Safdar Ansari is his covering candidate. PTI’s Maqsood Sabir Ansari is the son of five-time MPA Haji Sabir Ali Ansari. Ishfaq Kamboh of the Nakai group has neither withdrawn his nomination papers nor started his campaign since he was refused a ticket by the PTI. His campaign posters can be found here and there but there is no campaign on the ground. PPP’s Asif Khokhar is also in the run but is not expected to put anywhere close to a decent show in the election.
PP 175 Kasur II comprises Mustafa Abad, Bhilla Hathar, and Raja Jhang. PML-N has fielded Malik Ahmad Saeed, who won the 2013 election from PP-178. He was among those accused in the Kasur child abuse case but was acquitted by the court.
Another N ticket aspirant Muhammad Yaqoob Nadeem Sethi, who won in 2013 from old PP-175, wasn’t awarded a ticket because the updated constituency does not include many of his stronghold areas.
PTI’s Mrs. Masood Bhatti, whose husband Masood Bhatti was shot dead along with his friend and four guards at Ferozepur Road Toll Plaza in 2014, is running a vigorous campaign. Brother of ex-MPA Ahmad Ali Tolu, Maqbool Ahmad Tolu is the PPP’s candidate.
In PP-176 Khuddian, PML-N has retained Malik Ahmad Khan, who won the seat in 2013. PTI has awarded its ticket to the former PPP Kasur district president, Sardar Muhammad Hussain Dogar. He was among the candidates who joined the party just ahead of the 2018 election. However, Dogar’s campaign is not being supported by other PTI ticket aspirants Nadir Farooq, a nephew of Sardar Muhammad Asif Nakai, and Barrister Shahid Mehmood Khan, a cousin of the former Punjab chief secretary Javed Mehmood.
The contest for PP 177 Kanganpur is between Col. Hashim Dogar of PTI and Chaudhry Ahsan Raza of PML-N. Dogar left the Q-League and joined the PTI just ahead of the elections.
Ahsan Raza, who won the MPA seat from old PP-180, is a longstanding N worker and was preferred by the party leader, Nawaz Sharif, over Waqas Hassan Mokal, who defeated Raza in the 2013 election from the PP seat. Mokal has been hoping parties lately and he joined the N League just recently when he was denied a ticket by the PTI. Earlier, he was with the PML-Q. He is now contesting the election as an independent.
In PP-178 Chunain/Changa Manga, PML-N has fielded influential businessman Sheikh Alauddin against PTI’s Rao Zahid Qayyum, a brother of former MPA Rao Shahid Qayyum.
There are two new faces in the contest this time: Mian Hambal Sani, the son of former chairman of the Kasur municipal committee Mian Sani, and Pir Sakhi Haider Shah, the custodian of the shrine of Pir Anwar Shah in Changa Manga. Haider Shah has an MBA degree from a school in London and is contesting the election on the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s ticket.
In PP-179 Pattoki, Chaudhry Mehmood Anwar Babbi, former N-League MPA, is contesting against PTI’s Pir Mukhtar Ahmad, another former MPA. Mukhtar Ahmad was chosen over longtime party activist Rana Muhammad Tariq and former ticket holder Chaudhry Aqeel Aslam Arain. Neither of them is supporting Mukhtar’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Mukhtar’s brother Major (retd) Pir Ejaz is also contesting in the constituency on the TLP’s ticket. Two independent candidates Rana Mumtaz Ahmad and Advocate Ahsan Nizami are also running lavish campaigns.
In PP-180 Jamber/Sara-e-Mughal, N’s candidate is Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan, who is the party’s contestant on the NA140 seat as well. Sardar Muhammad Asif Nakai is expected to give him a tough competition on the PTI’s ticket.
Moulana Sabir Siddiqui, a prayer leader at a barelvi mosque, is running a charged campaign on Ashraf Asif Jalali’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik Islam ticket. TLP has fielded a family member of Hayat, Rana Tanveer Riaz.
PP-181 is the hometown of Rana Phool Muhammad Khan and the contest here is a family affair.
Rana Phool’s son Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan, a former speaker of the Punjab Assembly, is contesting on N’s ticket; his nephew Rana Muhammad Aslam, a former DIG, is contesting on PTI’s ticket; and a nephew of Aslam, Rana Naeem Riaz is in the run on the TLP’s ticket.
In PP-182 Kot Radha Kishen, PML-N has fielded Ilyas Gujjar instead of the former MPA, Anees Ahmad Qureshi who was accused of supporting PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar in the Senate election. Qureshi, whose son Dawood Qureshi is an independent candidate in NA 138, is contesting here as an independent. Many in the area believe that Qureshi wasn’t too inclined to get an N ticket keeping in view the impression that the powerful security establishment was against it.
Rao Dawar Hayat, the son of ex-MNA Rao Mazhar Hayat Khan, is contesting on a PTI ticket. The father-son duo are running a well-funded campaign.
Published in Daily Times, July 7th 2018.
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