Sarwar, Mahmood to face off for PTI Punjab presidency

Jehangir Tareen announces his candidacy for the central secretary general

LAHORE:

Former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar and the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf’s only National Assembly member from the city, Shafqat Mahmood, will face off in the intra-party elections for the highest party office in the province.

Sarwar has the backing of Jehangir Khan Tareen-led Unity Group and Mahmood’s candidacy is endorsed by Shah Mahmood Qureshi-led Nazriati Group.



Mahmood’s candidature was confirmed to The Express Tribune on Friday by Hamid Khan, chairman of a review committee formed by the Nazriati Group to vet applications for intra-party elections. Khan said the group had yet to select candidates for other party offices. He said considering the party chairman belonged to the Punjab, the secretary general should come from another province.

The Unity Group made its announcement at a press conference addressed by Tareen. Aleem Khan and MPAs Shoaib Siddiqi and Dr Nosheen Hamid were also present at the occasion.

Tareen announced that he would contest the election for the office of the central secretary general.

Some party members privy to the development said that Khan had been persuaded by Tareen to put his support behind Sarwar’s candidature.

Deliberations over the selection of candidate for the Punjab president’s election had been underway for several weeks. Tareen had arrived in the city in the beginning of the week and held meetings with party members to finalise his group’s candidate. As many as 250 members had attended one of these meetings.

On Friday, the group held a meeting that continued for three hours before the press conference.



“We’ve tried to build consensus as far as possible to avoid rifts in the party,” Tareen said. He said candidates for election to regional and district level offices would be finalised in the coming days. He said he hoped the intra-party elections would be completed before the party’s Foundation Day. He said the membership drive could still be extended beyond the March 31 deadline set earlier.

Tareen said he had also reached out to Rai Azizullah and Ejaz Chaudhry (both part of the Nazriat Group) as part of efforts to develop consensus among party leaders. He said he had received a good response from both leaders.

Aleem Khan said he intended to run for a central office in the party. However, he did not name the office he would contest. He said the need of the hour was to promote unity in the party ranks. “Punjab is our main battlefield against the PML-N. We hope to sweep elections in the province in 2018 under Sarwar’s leadership,” he said.

Referring to the upcoming election, Sarwar said it would be a contest among friends.

Mahmood’s name was finalised by the Nazriati group after Ejaz Chaudhry formally withdrew from the race for the highest office in the province last week. He had said that he would consider contesting an office in the central organisation.

Mahmood had resigned from the Lahore organiser’s office over the party’s poor performance in the recently held local government elections in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2016.