PMLN troubles in Gujrat continue

[Qalandari]

GUJRAT: A former MPA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Chaudhry Arshad Mahmood, may get PML-N ticket for PP-114 (Sara-i-Alamgir) as a strong lobby in the party is active to sideline district president and ex-MNA Hanif Awan.

Winning NA-107 in December by-poll, Mr Awan was asked by the party leadership around two weeks ago to go for PP-114 rather than the National Assembly seat as the party wanted to oblige the Kotla group.

Sources in the party told Dawn that a group of former legislators of Gujrat district who had joined the PML-N after deserting the Chaudhrys, had been lobbying for a party ticket for Arshad Mahmood on the ground that the Awan camp may not support the Kotla group for NA-107.

To avoid such a situation, the group of new entrants is telling the party elders to award ticket to Arshad who was elected as PML-Q man in the last two general elections, but latter joined the Q’s forward bloc in the Punjab Assembly in 2009.

The sources said the party could seriously consider the option of replacing Awan even in PP-114.
Despite remaining part of the unification bloc and enjoying other privileges as a treasury member for more than three years, Arshad did not support PML-N’s Hanif Awan for NA-107 by-election and rather backed Rehman Naseer Marala, a joint candidate of the Q-PPP alliance.

Chaudhry Arshad is the younger brother of late Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq, the four-time member of the Punjab Assembly who also remained law minister in the cabinet of Chief Minister Manzoor Wattoo.
Soon after his election as MPA in 2002, Chaudhry Farooq was assassinated.

Chaudhry Arshad was then elected to the Punjab Assembly unopposed in the subsequent by-poll.
Hanif Awan and Farooq groups have been traditional rivals in Sara-i-Alamgir tehsil politics since 1993.

The sources said some of the senior party leaders were not happy with Hanif Awan who had been serving as the district president of Gujrat since 1999 as he resigned from the party office in August last due to ‘indifferent’ behaviour of the party leadership towards the cadres in Gujrat and acceptance of forward bloc’s MPA Mian Tariq Mahmood of Dinga, Chaudhry Arshad Mahmood and the Kotla group in the party.

However, party chief Nawaz Sharif had pledged to resolve the issues in a meeting with party men after which Awan and a number of other party officials from Gujrat had withdrawn their resignations.

In case of sidelining Hanif Awan from NA-107 and now from PP-114, the PML-N may face a possible wrath of the local party ranks for ignoring diehard workers.

Talking to Dawn, Chaudhry Arshad confirmed that the chances of his getting the PML-N ticket were there as the party had been offering him ticket for the last two years.

However, he said so far he had not made up his mind whether to contest from the platform of the PML-Q or the PML-N.

According to him, a party ticket did not matter to him and his supporters.

Replying to another question regarding PPP leader Wattoo’s reported offer of a PPP ticket to him due to his family’s close association with him (Wattoo), he said Mr Wattoo had never made such an offer to him.


http://dawn.com/2013/03/24/gujrat-politics-pml-n-in-two-minds-over-one-pa-ticket/

 

[Qalandari]

It has hardly been 3 months that the Awan group won NA 107 by elections on PMLN ticket.

 

[Qalandari]

Barelvi -Deobandi problem arises on the issue of candidate selection








GUJRAT, March 17: As the `sufferings’ of old guards at the hands of new entrants to Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) continue in Gujrat, the fresh `casualty’ is party’s district president and ex-MNA Malik Hanif Awan.




According to well-placed sources in the PML-N, the party leadership has asked Awan to run for the Punjab Assembly seat PP-114 (Sara-i-Alamgir) instead of NA-107, the seat he won in the December 2012 by-election by bagging over 100,000 votes.




Sources say the party wants to accommodate Abid Raza of Kotla group who joined the PML-N after the 2008 general elections. The move is highly surprising for all and sundry in the Gujrat PML-N.




Talking to Dawn, a couple of local PML-N leaders regretted that the party hierarchy had neither counted the sacrifices of Mr Awan he rendered for the party in Gujrat since the Oct 12, 1999 coup by Pervez Musharraf nor the fact of bagging of record votes by him a few months ago. When this correspondent approached Awan, he confirmed that the leadership had asked him to contest for the Punjab Assembly seat.




Sources quoted Mian Nawaz Sharif as telling Hanif Awan that Hamza Shahbaz Sharif had reportedly made a commitment to awarding PML-N ticket to Chaudhry Abid Raza of Kotla group during the by-elections held in December to appease the Kotlas who had also been demanding a ticket for the by-election.




It is learnt that a banned religious outfit that is known for its affiliation with the PML-N in Punjab has also sought the N ticket for Abid Raza due to his strong association with it (the outfit).




Chaudhry Abid Raza was convicted in the murder case of six people during an assassination bid on former Gujrat Tehsil Nazim and ex-MPA Ghulam Sarwar Bhooch (late) back in 1998. Mr Bhooch had then survived the bid. Abid Raza was awarded a death sentence under section 7 of Anti Terrorism Act and he remained in the Gujranwala prison where his contacts had reportedly been developed with a key figure of a banned outfit who was also facing jail in the murder case of senior police officer Ashraf Marth.




Both the Kotla and Bhooch groups later reconciled after more than three decades of enmity as Sarwar Bhooch had also been awarded death sentence in 2002 in connection with the murder case of Haji Abdul Khaliq, the elder brother of Abid Raza.




After the reconciliation between the rival groups, Raza was set free in 2003. A law enforcement agency had also taken Mr Raza into custody in connection with attacks on former president Pervez Musharraf due to Raza’s alleged links with militant groups and he remained in captivity for more than a year but released later on due to the intervention of the PML-Q leadership.




The Kotla group had been the part of PPP and its nominee Aamir Usman Raza had won the Punjab Assembly seat PP-115 on PPP ticket in 2002 general elections but soon after the polls, the group had joined the PML-Q whereas in the 2008 elections, the group had to face split as Abid Raza and three of his brothers joined the PML-N and their nominee Irfanuddin contested as an independent candidate and won the PP-115 seat whereas two of Abid Raza’s brothers are still in the PML-Q. Mr Raza used to move in a heavily guarded convoy.




AWAN: Ex-MNA Hanif Awan was first elected MPA on the PML-N ticket in 1997 general elections from Sara-i-Alamgir but could not contest the 2002 elections due to the graduation bar. However, he pitched his nephew Dr Ajmal Siddiq Awan on two seats — NA-107 and PP-114– on the PML-N ticket who remained runner-up.




In 2008 elections Awan fielded his another nephew Malik Jamil Awan who won on PML-N ticket but later on was disqualified by the Supreme Court in September 2012 for having dual nationality. Awan then contested the December 2012 by-poll and won NA-107 with a huge margin.




Sources said when the party leadership asked Hanif Awan to contest from PP-114, he reportedly sought PP-115 as well for another diehard party worker Chaudhry Farrukh Majeed, a senior vice president of PML-N in Gujrat. Awan reportedly sought the party ticket for Mr Majeed as a prerequisite for his (Awan’s) withdrawal from NA-107.




It is learnt that Mian Nawaz Sharif accepted his demand but the Kotla group claims that it has gained the party nod for both NA-107 and PP-115.




Sources in the party say that the Kotla group will never withdraw from PP-115 even after getting NA-107. In that case, Hanif Awan may also go to contest NA-107 independently besides putting his own independent panel on both the Punjab assembly seats falling under the NA seat, a situation the PML-N can never afford.




RAZA: Abid Raza who has launched his campaign as N candidate for NA-107, belongs to the Deobandi sect. The rival Barelvi sect that dominates the population of NA-107 will play a decisive role in the local politics like the last by-elections as a large number of local clerics influenced by Pir Aminul Hasnat Shah of Bhera Sharif, the chief of PML-N religious wing, have unanimously decided at a meeting held here the other day not to support Abid Raza due to his strong affiliation with the other sect.

http://dawn.com/2013/03/18/man-having-links-with-banned-outfit-may-get-pml-n-ticket/

 

[chaudhary007]

why you post from there.............here i belong to this area....village of malik hanif awan.........it is 100% confirmed yesterday that malik Hanif will not get ticket of MNA,,, as party has confirmed to Abid raza.......source told while both groups were sitting in Raiwind.
On the other hand malik hanif will contest as independent candidate...........
as a neutral ,.....he will loose 100% and even abid raza will also loose.....Rehman naseer or Ch Illyas of PTI may get seat ..
While Ch Arshad might not be able to get his seat again as one of another new independent candidate Ch Tariq is contesting for PP114and he is also from my village..you can say that very close relative to us........so Malik Hanif awan and both ch arshad will loose............

As neutral pundits say that if Malik Hanif contest as an indeoendent candidate and ch arshad on PMLN ticket then seat for PP 114 is going to be of PTI .................but MNA seat will be 50 50 between PMLQ and PTI

 

[Wadaich]

why you post from there.............here i belong to this area....village of malik hanif awan.........it is 100% confirmed yesterday that malik Hanif will not get ticket of MNA,,, as party has confirmed to Abid raza.......source told while both groups were sitting in Raiwind.
On the other hand malik hanif will contest as independent candidate...........
as a neutral ,.....he will loose 100% and even abid raza will also loose.....Rehman naseer or Ch Illyas of PTI may get seat ..
While Ch Arshad might not be able to get his seat again as one of another new independent candidate Ch Tariq is contesting for PP114and he is also from my village..you can say that very close relative to us........so Malik Hanif awan and both ch arshad will loose............

As neutral pundits say that if Malik Hanif contest as an indeoendent candidate and ch arshad on PMLN ticket then seat for PP 114 is going to be of PTI .................but MNA seat will be 50 50 between PMLQ and PTI

Kotla Group too is a reaction to Choudhries's badmaashi. What is their political strength except badmaashi with beard? Do they have any worth in the election?

 

[chaudhary007]

Kotla Group too is a reaction to Choudhries's badmaashi. What is their political strength except badmaashi with beard? Do they have any worth in the election?

Kotla group is just limited to Kotla and his two brothers are with chaudries so its dream come to if he gets more than 50000 votes eve.....while in NA 107 due to the disputes of PMLN .......PMLQ will win or PTI.......

 

[shinok786]

hey chaudary i belong to sarai alam gir aswel and i agree with u pti could win these seats and yes no matter how big badmash abid raza is its saraialam gir not kotla even chaudries cant do badmashi here and yes majority is brelvi and deobandi canditate cannot win

 

[malik1c]

Thanks for insights and analysis, lets wait and see

 

[innocent123]

PTI cant win from Gujrat this seat would be 1000000000000000000000000000000%Q leak because they seen last 5 years of mian brothers and everybody knows about CH Tjamal,s Son Ch mubashar (P.T.I) and from lota family usman manzoor dhadra asn also Dhadra cnt take ticket this Ticket will go to Mubashar or any other Jaurra from PTI and ch mitty pao 100000000000000000000000000000000% will win this time i live in front of Zahoor Palace