LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz swept the local government polls, once again demonstrating its popularity and strength in the province of Punjab.
It won all mayor seats from 10 municipal corporations, along with the metropolitan corporation berth. However, it did lose seven district council chairperson seats in the province till the filing of this report. At the same time, only one of those was lost to a candidate being supported by another political party.
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In Rahim Yar Khan, Iman Waseem, supported by PML-Q and niece of former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat, defeated PML-N’s Ahsan Ali, who’s uncle is Federal Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar. Ruling party candidates won 25 district council chairpersons seats. Seven seats were won by independent candidates, whereas the remaining results were pending till the filing of this report.
A major upset in these elections was the defeat of Makhdom Ali Mehmood, the son of former Punjab governor Makhdom Ahmad Mehmood. He lost to PML-N candidate Khan Azhar Leghari. The remaining six district council chairpersons were estranged PML-N candidates who went against their party and contested independently.
Lord Mayor of Lahore Colonel (Retd) Mubbashir Javed had already been elected unopposed. Similarly, Sardar Naseem, Chaudhry Tauheed Akhtar, Haji Nisar Mehmood and Aslam Naveed were elected unopposed as the mayors of Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujrat and Sahiwal, respectively.
Results for the Murree mayoral elections had been stayed by a court order. The only polling that took place was in Faislabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Gujrawala. As per the results, Razzaq Malik won from Faisalabad, Akeel Najam from Bahawalpur, Shahid Hameed Chandia from DG Khan, Sheikh Sarwat Ikram from Gujranwala and Naveed Arain from Multan.
Much hype had been created over mayoral elections in Faisalabad where the Rana Sanaullah group, represented by Razzaq Malik, went up against the Abid Sher Ali group. However Razzaq managed to defeat Sheraz Kalu who was supported by Abid Sher Ali. For district council chairman elections, Masood Gadhi, who was issued party ticket, was asked to withdraw in favour of Fauzia Khalid Waraich who was elected as an independent candidate. Another contentious district council was Rajhanpur where PML-N candidate Aziz Dirisik won a chairperson seat.
He was up against estranged PML-N leader Hasham Javeed Gorchani.
Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif congratulated the mayors, deputy mayors as well as district council chairpersons and vice chairpersons who were elected in the final last phase of the local bodies’ elections.
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“PML-N stood victorious in all the phases of the election,’ the CM said. “It is a victory for service, honesty, integrity and transparency.
The public has rejected the politics of allegations, lies and negativity.” Shahbaz said that those flying the flag for negative politics must learn a lesson. He added that those impeding the progress of country will always fail.
He instructed the newly-elected representatives to go to the public and serve them. The CM asked them to use all their energies for the people. He concluded that it was mandatory for representatives to meet the expectations of the masses from their constituencies.
With these local government elections in Punjab drawing to a close, the process to elect a grass-roots-level administration has been completed in all four provinces of the country.
The lengthy process of local government polls in the province started in 2015 with elections for direct seats in three phases. In the final phase, the newly-elected representatives would take oath on December 31 and start their duties.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2016.
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