GUJRAT: Protest by PPP workers and uncertainty on the political front, which has increased further after the arrival of PML-N president Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family from Saudi Arabia, has reportedly forced the PPP leadership to reshuffle its list of ticket holders in Gujrat.
The PPP leadership had incensed party workers by awarding tickets of all the four National Assembly seats in Gujrat to three major political families of the district ignoring initially the party’s old guards in Gujrat — the Pagganwala group.
Sources said a meeting of the PPP’s central executive committee and federal council members from Gujranwala division was held in Islamabad under the presidentship of Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Friday wherein candidates for the four national and eight provincial assembly seats in the Gujrat district had been finalized.
The meeting had decided to field former MNA Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull of the Nawabzada family for NA-104 against Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain of the PML-Q while former federal minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar of the Servis family would face Chaudhry Shujaat Husain for NA-105. Former MNA Qamarul Zaman Kaira of the Kaira family of Lala Musa was given ticket for NA-106 constituency while Mr Kaira’s first cousin Zia Mohiuddin for NA-107.
On Sunday, the PPP decided to accommodate the Pagganwalas by awarding ticket to Raja Masood Ahmed from NA-107 instead of Zia Mohiuddin. The PPP leadership also decided to award ticket to Saima Fakhar, the daughter-in-law of Mian Mushtaq Ahmed Pagganwala, on reserved seat of women from both NA and PA constituencies.
Sources said that Mian Mushtaq Ahmed Pagganwala had met Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad on Saturday and reminded her of his meeting in London in August last wherein she assured him to ward party ticket for NA-107 constituency.
They said the Kairas were now seriously considering joining the PML-N after their candidate Zia Mohiuddin was deprived of his ticket.