Pakistan

Punjab LG polls: No party tickets for PML-N lawmakers’ kith and kin

PM Nawaz directs party’s provincial parliamentary board to strictly follow the new criteria

Abdul Manan August 30, 2015

PM Nawaz directs party’s provincial parliamentary board to strictly follow the new criteria. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred the sitting lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from getting party tickets for their relatives in the upcoming local government (LG) polls, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to sources privy to developments, the premier has directed the parliamentary board of his party to strictly follow this new criterion while issuing tickets.

Nawaz announced this decision during the party’s recent high-level consultative meeting. His fresh initiative sent a wave of worries among the party’s ministers who used to get their sons, daughters, wives and relatives elected for important portfolios of LG setup of Punjab.

According to participants of the meeting, a few party lawmakers voiced of dissent when Nawaz announced this decision, but the prime minister snubbed their objections and directed the senior leadership in Punjab to strictly comply this instruction.

Nawaz’s nephew MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Saud Majeed and other party core senior leaders in Punjab devised this strategy, sources said.

According to the senior leadership of the PML-N, the practice of awarding tickets to relatives has been observed ever since the party was constituted. In the previous LG polls, either held in the Musharraf regime or in the Nawaz government, all party lawmakers forwarded the names of their near and dear ones as potential candidates.

The party senior leadership by studying this old trend within the party has decided to discourage this trend as the PML-N vote bank is shrinking day-by-day, they said. Because of this trend, the PML-N could not move beyond family politics and entice new members at the local level into its fold, they added.

Both the Sharif brothers and architects of this policy were of the opinion that the party’s ministers have started to blackmail the party leadership by threatening to join other parties.

Nawaz said that now the party lawmakers should approach new faces in their constituencies and districts to interact with them and expand the party.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (19)

Abid Ali | 8 years ago | Reply Dear Our Beloved Leaders (Mian Nawaz & Shahbaz & Hamza Shahbaz), Sirs kindly review the decision again for giving tickets to Gowalmindi/Nisbat Road Candidates. They are knownly dishonest, bad reputaion and people of constituency dislike them and want to see honest, well reputed and hardworkers who resolve issues amicably for all residents of constituency.

Ebaad | 8 years ago | Reply The Sharif family has already accommodated all their members on lucrative posts in federal and provincial governments, therefore this statement makes sense. Just to get the feel of the caliber of human resource produced from this family, have a look at who is holding the State Ministry of Water and Power. @Anarchist: No wonder the guy cant speak without reading from a paper You nailed it. Couldn't stop laughing :D

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Anarchist | 8 years ago | Reply @observer: Yes. He is the greatest statesman since Churchill. No wonder the guy cant speak without reading from a paper.

Anarchist | 8 years ago | Reply @Malveros: Your sense of humor is remarkable. About 25 members of Sharif clan are sitting on various government positions or sitting in assemblies and he has the gale to instruct his party not to follow his path. Great moral weight in his stance.

Daddy | 8 years ago | Reply @Ch AD you too are a comedian.

Daddy | 8 years ago | Reply @Malware or Malveros whatever. You are quiet a comic person.

Fawad khan | 8 years ago | Reply This rule does not apply to sharif family, first cousins of sharifs, second cousins of sharifs and anyone having any near or far relation by blood or by marriage to the sharif family.

M.ASLAM.K JULBANI | 8 years ago | Reply Good

Lolz | 8 years ago | Reply A strategy has been devised by the nephew of PM not to award tickets to relatives Lolz!

Ch. Allah Daad | 8 years ago | Reply This important step was necessary to short list huge number of aspirants. PML(N) is so popular that its almost facing no challenge from opponents and number of potential candidates had crossed all limits.

Sceptic | 8 years ago | Reply On the other hand, the party change awarded tickets to brothers, sons and nephews in KP local elections. Pervaiz Khattak as his brother, nephew and a son in law as Union Council chairmen.

Frank | 8 years ago | Reply Thank you, Imran Khan!

Israr | 8 years ago | Reply No tickets to family members because all family members of Sharifs already on posts hundreds times more lucrative than LG positions. Sharif family not big enough anyway for local body election. This decision, if true, is the clearest indication yet that local bodies are not going to get much funds. Either this, or no LG elections.

Parvez | 8 years ago | Reply In principle a good decision .... but it sould be applied across the board and retrospectively if it is mean anything, so........Go Shahbaz go, go Dar go, go Abid Sher Ali go ,......and possibly others to.

observer | 8 years ago | Reply He is no more a politician but a stateaman

Banigala | 8 years ago | Reply Oye Nawaz Sharif yeh ki mai lotay lai raha hoon or tu nai logon ko chance dai raha hai. Excellent decision by NS and SS.

Malveros | 8 years ago | Reply Fantastic move by NS. He is definitely leading us into Naya Pakistan.

Aschraful Makhlooq | 8 years ago | Reply "ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has barred the sitting lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from getting party tickets for their relatives in the upcoming local government (LG) polls, The Express Tribune has learnt." Nawaz Sharif is absolutely rightful on his this stance because he has good enough his relatives appointed on the key federal ministry posts so he doesn't want more his and behind then scenes his brother Shahbaz Sharif's MNAs, MPA's and lawmakers' relatives on Local Government's posts....

Pakistan | 8 years ago | Reply This is how PML N riggs. Just watch. There is no way to determine this.

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