Gujrat showdown: Pervaiz Elahi to face Ahmed Mukhtar

PPP, PML-Q have fielded their own heavyweight candidates for constituencies in Gujrat.

ISLAMABAD:

The seemingly solid electoral alliance between the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid has started to develop cracks. Instead of fielding joint candidates for NA-105 and NA-104 in Gujrat, both parties have instead awarded tickets for the constituencies to their own heavy weight candidates.

Tweets by Radio Pakistan on Saturday quoted PML-Q provincial president Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as saying that, according to seat adjustments made with the PPP, the two parties had agreed that he would contest the elections for NA 105 himself and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain would be fielded for the NA-104 constituency.

But a PPP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that any such seat adjustments deal had been made. He claimed the PPP had awarded tickets to former defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar and party veteran Ghazanfar Gul for NA-105 and NA-104 respectively.

Instead, the PPP leader alleged that it was the PML-Q which had violated its commitment by fielding Elahi against Mukhtar in NA-105. He claimed that the parties had agreed to award joint tickets for the respective constituencies to candidates who won the same seats in the previous elections - Mukhtar had won the seat in 2008.

But PML-Q spokesperson Kamil Ali Agha had another tale to tell. According to him, his party had an understanding with PPP that Chaudhry  Pervaiz Elahi and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain would receive tickets for NA-105 and NA 104 respectively. He said, however, that it was not possible to mutually adjust every seat and certain constituencies would have to be contested traditionally. Agha added that the two parties still had seven to 10 days to settle issues with mutual consent.

According to further tweets by Radio Pakistan, Elahi maintained that PML-Q’s Rehman Nasir would be fielded as a joint candidate for PP-107, while party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would contest the elections for PP-108 and Chaudhry Sahadat Nawaz would be fielded for PP-109. In addition, Chaudhry Monis Elahi will contest in PP-110 and Mian Umran Masood would contest the polls from PP-111 under the seat arrangement deal. Meanwhile, PPP’s Tanveer Ashraf Kaira would contest the PP-112 constituency, Chaudhry Ejaz would contest PP-113, Chaudhry Arshad would be fielded in PP-114 and Chaudhry Naeem Raza would receive the ticket for PP-115.

Correction: Earlier, in the last paragraph all the provincial assembly constituencies were mistakenly written with NA as a prefix and not PP. We regret the error.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2013.