SIALKOT - The PPP is likely to award party ticket to either Ch Ghlam Abbas, former provincial minister, or Khalid Malik, younger brother of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, to contest election from NA-114 constituency, a stronghold of the PML-N, against N League’s Zahid Hamid.
Earlier, PPP’s leader Ghulam Abbas was stated to be a strong candidate in the constituency but now the political invasion of Khalid Malik is jolting the PPP politics in the Pasrur region. Also the PPP Punjab leadership seems to be in “hot waters” to finalise one of the two persons. If the PPP nominates Khalid Malik as its candidate for NA 114, what would be the political fate and future of Ch Ghulam Abbas? This question still remains unanswered.
Some high ups of the PPP are of the view that the PPP leadership would grant the party ticket to Khalid Malik following the mounted pressure from Rehman Malik while Ghulam Abbas would be adjusted in any provincial assembly constituency of Pasrur area.
According to political observers, the PPP was playing the political game to defeat PML-N Zahid Hamid, who remained unbeatable here. In 2002 general elections, he won the seat from PML-Q platform and later he joined the PML-N. In 2008 general elections, he knocked out both PPP and PML-Q candidates PPP’s Ghulam Abbas and PML-Q’s Abdul Sattar.
During his recent address to a public meeting at Sabzpeer in Pasrur tehsil, Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi nominated Maqsud Ahmed Sulehria, the former tehsil nazim of Pasrur, as the PML-Q candidate for NA 114 Pasrur ahead of the 2013 general elections. He had said that the PML-Q had political potential enough for clinching the Pasrur seat by defeating the PML-N.
Earlier, Sialkot’s Variyo Family had great political influence in the constituency but after the sad demise of the family’s head Akhtar Ali, former MNA, it started losing its influence because of repeatedly changing political parties by scions of Variyo family including former provincial ministers Khush Akhtar Subhani and Armughan Subhani. However, the PML-N seemed to be in very strong position, as the PPP still remains unable to field a candidate against PML-N’s Zahid Khan.