JI suspends Murree office bearers

Leaders independently decide to sit out elections; parties finalise candidate list

RAWALPINDI: The Jamaat-e-Islami district chapter has suspended all office-bearers of the party’s Muree cantonment board for not accepting candidates list and independently deciding against contesting the local bodies elections.

The committee formed by the district organisation of the party had prepared a list of party candidates and forwarded it to the party’s Muree cantonment office, but the local office unilaterally decided not contesting the elections.

“The decision was taken in violation of party rules and notices have been issued to members of the local wing, besides suspending their membership,” JI district Ameer Shamsur Rahman Swati told The Express Tribune.

An office-bearer said, on condition of anonymity, that they also faced shortage of candidates in most of wards. “There are no candidates contesting election from the four wards of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and five wards of Chaklala Cantonment Board,’ the office-bearer said. The wards are left open without entering into an alliance with any party. The final list of candidates would be issued on April 8, he added.

Moreover, the Pakistan Peoples Party has yet to finalise its list of candidates. District President Malik Fida Paracha said a meeting was held and the list would be finalised by Tuesday.

“All seniors had agreed to nominate young candidates and most seniors have withdrawn their own nomination papers,” informed Paracha. However, much like JI, the PPP also lacks representation in various wards. The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) is also struggling to finalise its list of candidates.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has also finalised its list and has nominated candidates from each ward. However, the names have yet to be announced.

There are 34 wards in the five cantonment boards of the district.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in a party meeting held on Monday, also finalised the list in presence of the party leaders from all cantonments and district offices.

The list was made available to the media on Tuesday.

“The names of candidates have been finalised for all wards. JI would support PTI in wards which we are not contesting,” said an office-bearer who was present at the meeting.

Almost all political parties are facing internal differences and difficulties in finalising names of the candidates. “It is due to the internal differences that no party has finalised candidates so far,” said Muhammad Ishaq, a PPP worker.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2015.