OKARA City News

Okara: 3 political families join hands
against PML-N under PTI umbrella
From Our Correspondent
OKARA: The de-seating of PML-N federal minister Saad Rafiq, NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and NA-154 MNA Siddiq Baloch had brought three rival local political families in unison under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) banner.
A case seeking disqualification of PML-N MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Arif had been pending with an Election Tribunal (ET) since general election 2013, and he was de-seated on August 21, 2015. He has also experienced electoral problems in the past also. Earlier, his nomination papers were rejected in the previous general elections. However, he served as chairman of the local municipal committee meanwhile and later on was elected as an MPA.
In 2008 general elections, the late former federal minister for defence had levelled the objection of bogus academic degree against him, and his nomination papers were rejected. However, his covering candidate Chaudhry Sajjadul Hassan won the MNA seat on a PPP ticket against Rao Sikandar Iqbal.
In 2013 general elections, Ch Muhammad Arif”s nomination papers were approved, and consequently he won the election on the PML-N ticket. However, Ch Sajjadul Hassan and some others filed election petitions against him, and consequently got him de-seated on the fake degree charge.
The late Rao Sikandar Iqbal remained in the PPP for the longest time period of his life. But, later on, he joined hands with former president General Pervez Musharraf.
General Election 2013 caused a rivalry between Ch Sajjadul Hassan and Ch Muhammad Arif and both contested elections. The latter was declared successful. The wife of the late Rao Sikandar Iqbal also contested the same election unsuccessfully.
In the past, there had been two houses in the mainstream of local politics in Okara. The area had been a battlefield between Rao Sikandar Iqbal of the PPP and Mian Muhammad Zaman of the PML, later on the PML-N. Both had been winning elections alternately and joining the federal cabinets.
After the demise of Rao Sikandar Iqbal, his family drowned in oblivion of politics. In the later part of his life, Rao Sikandar patronised Muhammad Ashraf Khan Sohna, who twice won the local MPA seat. Though Rao Sikandar was expelled from the PPP by Benazir Bhutto, Ashraf Sohna remained in the party. He was made a provincial minister as the PPP MPA by Shahbaz Sharif during the previous government.
In general election 2013, Sohna lost his seat to Mian Muhammad Munir of the PML-N, and acquiesced to the position of only the PPP district president.
PTI National Assembly ticket-holder Rao Khalid Mustafa had contested some elections on the PPP provincial assembly ticket. But before 2013 general elections, he joined the PTI and lost the election.
Recently, Rao Hassan Sikandar joined the PTI, and soon after that Muhammad Ashraf Sohna and Pir Samsam Bokhari also showed allegiance to Imran Khan.
After de-seating of MNA Ch Arif, the three houses - Rao Sikandar’s, Sohna’s and Khalid Mustafa’s, who now stands in the ranks of the PTI, ended their differences and gathered on the platform of the PTI.
In a media talk, they said: “We have join hands as political workers of the PTI. Whoever gets the party ticket to contest the by-election, all would wholeheartedly run the election campaign.”