Grassroots power: PML-N to field in 10 candidates for Walton Cant elections

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has fielded its candidates in 10 Wards of Walton Cantonment Board.

The Provincial Election Commissioner on Monday issued a list of candidates contesting the elections in 10 Walton Cantonment Wards.

The Jamaat-i-Islami has fielded its candidates in nine Wards; the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in eight Walton Wards; and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in seven Wards.

Four candidates are yet to be assigned electoral symbols. They are contesting the polls from Wards 8 and 9.

Most (19) candidates are contesting the elections from Ward 6. All major political parties are fielding their candidates from the ward. The least number (8) of candidates are contesting from Ward 4.

The ECP is expected to announce the polling scheme later in the week.

No confidence

PTI leader Muhammad Sarwar and Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed expressed a lack of confidence in the current government saying that the PTI would sweep the local body elections. A joint statement issued on Monday said Pakistan had been gripped by a tawdry political crisis while social issues of unemployment, power outage and inflation had been left unaddressed.

It said the government had turned a blind eye towards crucial issues while irrelevant political ‘dramas’ were played up to shift the nation’s focus elsewhere. It said the PTI would clean sweep the upcoming cantonment board elections.

“The PTI will emerge as the saviour of the nation,” it said. The PTI would adopt all necessary measures to reform the political infrastructure and solve  the issue of vast power outages in the Cantonment area.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2015.