Lahore’s provincial assembly seats: PML-N has almost completed nomination process

LAHORE: The PML-N has almost completed the process of nominating its candidates for the provincial assembly seats in the party fort Lahore, while the party leadership is working overtime to bring together the ones who were refused.

Almost all political parties faced serious reaction from its members who didn’t take the party boards’ rejection well. The PML-N, therefore, has spent a lot of time addressing the brewing disputes and antagonism among its ranks to avoid public fiasco that could dent the party popularity and cohesion in the elections.

The PML-N has already faced major backlash in the form Zaeem Qadri and Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor after the first list.

It had already announced that Samiullah Khan would contest from PP–144, Ghazali Saleem Butt from PP–145, Hamza Shahbaz from PP–146, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman from PP–147, Yasin Sohal from PP–162, Mian Naseer Ahmed from PP–163, Shahbaz Sharif from PP-164 and PP–165, Khawaja Saad Rafique from PP–168, Shabbir Khokhar from PP–161 and Maryam Nawaz from PP–173.

According to sources, Bilal Yasin is going to contest from PP-150, but there is a rift between the party as around a total of 19 chairmen and vice-chairmen have objected to his nomination. However, those have been almost settled and Bilal is most likely to contest from this seat, while Mian Marghoob is going to contest from PP-149.

From PP-151, Chaudhry Baqar is going to face PTI’s Aslam Iqbal and the candidate for PP-152 is Rana Mashhood.

Sources say while the party president is interested in keeping Rana Mashhood on the campaign trail with him and let his brother Rana Asad contest from this seat, Mashhood is very interested in contesting and will most likely get the nod.

Meanwhile, Shoaib Khan Niazi was another aspirant from the seat and had played the spoilers role in the last elections as an independent candidate. He, however, had vowed to the party leadership not to repeat that action, however it is likely that this disgruntled worker might damage the party vote band by tacitly supporting PTI’s Mehr Wajid.

Khawaja Imran Nazir will contest from PP-153, Bao Akhtar from PP-154 and Chaudhry Shehbaz from PP-148. Former health minister Khawaja Salman Rafique and Haji Naveed Anjum will be the candidates from PP-158 and PP-157 respectively.

Hafiz Nauman, the only candidate so far to defeat PTI’s Mian Aslam Iqbal, will contest from PP-159 with Syed Tauseef Shah from PP-160. The probable candidates for PP-166 and PP-167 are Ramzan Sadiq Bhatti and Mian Saleem respectively.

In case of PP-169, it’s a tie between Rana Khalid Qadri and Akhtar Hussain Badshah. Sources say while Rana Khalid is being considered as the favourite, he is the weaker of the two candidate as he had lost in the local government election to a former PML-N member who contested as an independent after being denied the party ticket.

Meanwhile, Badshah, who enjoys the support of some 3,500 plus strong Mayo clan in the constituency, had won the local government election, but appears to be less popular in the decision-making corridors.

Although it was finalised that Maryam would contest from NA-125 and Pervaiz Malik from NA-127, it has now become more probable due to the ailment of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and the shrunk campaign time for Maryam, that she would contest from NA-127 and Malik from NA-125. This swap might also affect the provincial assembly seats under NA-125, sources say.

The Punjab Assembly seats under NA-136, being contested by Afzal Khokhar, are still undecided, In case of those falling under NA-128 to be contested by Rohail Asghar, Bao Akhtar is being considered the final candidate from PP-154. However, the decision is pending for PP-155 and PP-156, but Malik Habib Awan is considered the party’s favourite from PP-155 and Malik Waheed from PP-156.