Canal View Housing Society: Split in PTI ranks gives rival hope

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) faces a tough competition against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Union Council 113. Some of its members are also contesting as independents and on Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) tickets after they were denied PTI tickets.

The union council consists of Canal View Housing Society’s Blocks A and B, Khayaban Chora Sahrif, the Water and Management Colony, the Canal Burg Society, Sultan Town, Rasoolpura, Ali Town and Judicial Colony. There are nearly 20,000 voters registered in the union council.

Chaudhry Safdar Hussain and Chaudhry Noor Hassan are the PPP candidates for chairman and vice chairman. The party has fielded no candidate for councillor. Mohsin Raza and Sheikh Naveed Ahmed are independent candidates for chairman and vice chairman, respectively. Their election symbol is diamond. Asim Zafar is the PTI candidate for chairman. Malik Manzoor Hussain, the PML-N candidate for chairman, is hoping to benefit from what he sees as a divide in the PTI. He says the PML-N enjoys support in the UC. “Some of the PTI members have left the party… I am now hoping for a victory.” Most residents of the area said they wanted the council leadership to address their problems related to drinking water and poor roads. Malik Afzal Khokhar and his brother Malik Saiful Malook Khokhar are the MNA and the MPA from the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2015.