Kazmi refuses PPP ticket for NA-176

MULTAN: Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari Friday failed to convince former federal minister for religious affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi to contest upcoming elections from NA-176 constituency, instead of NA-175, insiders told The News.

The failure in reaching reconciliation with Kazmi dealt a major blow to the PPP, as the party had won only two National Assembly seats in Punjab in 2013 elections including NA-175. Now Hamid Kazmi has decided to contest the upcoming elections as an independent candidate.

Zardari paid a short visit to Multan on Friday and he directly went to the residence of Hamid Kazmi from the Multan airport in a bid to save the skin of south Punjab PPP President Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, who was defeated by Kazmi in NA-175 constituency in 2008 elections. Asif Zardari held a meeting with Kazmi at his residence and left Multan without facing journalists. “I flatly refused Zardari’s suggestion to contest election from NA-176. Then he asked me to contest the upcoming polls as an independent candidate,” Kazmi told this scribe. “I cannot say whether I am standing with the PPP or not in future, but one thing is very clear that I am contesting polls from NA-175 at any cost,” Hamid Kazmi said. Former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani did not accompany Zardari during his visit to Kazmi residence. Hamid Kazmi wanted to contest polls from NA-175 (Rahim Yar Khan-I), which was previously known as NA-192 (Rahim Yar Khan-I) because of his personal vote bank in that area.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) statistics show that Hamid Kazmi contested from the same constituency in 2008 on a PPP ticket and won the seat by securing 65,395 votes. He defeated incumbent south Punjab PPP President Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, who had secured 40,131 votes on the PML-F ticket then. The PML-N candidate Mian Faizul Hassan had secured 3051 votes. Hamid Kazmi did not contest from that constituency in 2013 elections due to his cases. The PPP had fielded Khwaja Ghulam Rasool Koreja in that constituency and he won the slot by securing 80,499 votes. The PML-N fielded Makhdoom Ahmed Allam Anwar and he bagged 79,208 votes as runner-up. Makhdoom Ahmed Allam Anwar has quit the PML-N and joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Allam won from this area couple of times in nineties and then again in 2002.

The PML-N lacks an influential candidate in the constituency after quitting of party by Makhdoom Ahmed Allam Anwar. The PML-N has one option to support Hamid Saeed Kazmi from NA-175 or depend on comparatively a weak candidate, Mian Faizul Hassan. Mian Faiz had contested from this constituency on the PML-N ticket and bagged 3051 votes in 2008.