The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf I Provincial Election Commission has finalised arrangements for party elections to all Punjab district and tehsil organizations today.
Voting is set to start at 9am and continue till 5pm. Those elected at union council end would elect tehsil, town and district officer-bearers, a senior member of the election commission said.
PTI presidents have already been elected unopposed in six districts. Elections for the remaining 30 districts, including Lahore, will be held today at the Aiwan-i-Iqbal.
The election commission has issued voter lists to the returning officers. As many as 1990 voters will cast their votes for Lahore district. Each voter would be provided two ballot papers to choose 48 leaders, 30 to elect district office-bearers and 18 to elect tehsil and town office-bearers. The voters have been directed to carry their national identity cards. The candidates can nominate polling agents who would be authorised to verify the voters’ identity. The returning officer’s ruling in case of a dispute will be final.
In Lahore, four candidates are in the race for president and three for general secretary.
The Unity Group has fielded Abdul Aleem Khan for president and Abdul Rasheed Bhatti for general secretary. Mehmoodur Rasheed and Hafiz Farhat Abbas are of the Ideology Group candidates for Lahore president and general secretary. Farooq Amjad Mir of the Tsunami Change Movement and Rana Naveed from the Student Group are also running for president. Hammad Azhar is an independent candidate for general secretary.
Farooq and Azhar are considered favorite for president. Other candidates are facing criticism for their past political careers.
Requesting anonymity, some party leaders said Aleem Khan’s reputation hurting his group. Bhatti too was also considered a liability for his Unity Group owing to his arrogance.
Mehmoodur Rasheed is considered favourite for having remained with the PTI for an entire decade. He is also credited with organising the October 30.
Abbas’ nomination, however, is considered a negative for Rasheed. Some of the workers allege that Abbas was one of the people who manhandled Imran Khan during his visit to the Punjab University in November 2007.
A group led by Toni that initially joined the Aleem Khan camp has re-joined the Ideology Group.
Mir is seen as a dark horse representing his Tsunami Change group. Mir left the PTI and rejoined it but still enjoys support of some clean and educated young workers.
Omer Zahir Meer of the Tsunami Change group said all efforts had been made to elect clean people in party elections. He said all newly-elected men who supported “change” intended to elect Mir. He said the silent voters were also with Mir. “We are contacting all newly-elected office-bearers and have received a good response,” he said. Azhar said about 90 per cent of voters had made their minds to elect a clean, educated and devoted leadership. He said the idea of “change” would dominate the voting process.
Dr Saddiqi of the Unity Group said there was likely to be a close contest for president and general secretary. He said most of the voters were still undecided.
Ejaz Chaudhry, who is supporting Mehmoodur Rasheed, also foresaw a tough contest for the Lahore district presidency. He said Rasheed was leading but might face a hard contest through seats reserved for females at the district level. “We have fielded 29 candidates for district presidents and am optimistic that the majority of them would win,” Chaudhry said.
A supporter of the Unity Group said it had fielded candidates in all districts. We will change the status quo.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2013.