Basharat made incharge of PML campaign for 3rd phase

RAWALPINDI: Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has appointed Punjab local government minister Muhammad Basharat Raja as in-charge of election campaign of Pakistan Muslim League-backed candidates for the slots of district and tehsil nazims in Rawalpindi.

The appointment was made during a meeting at Lal Haveli, the residence of Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, on Friday.

Besides senior local Muslim Leaguers, Rahat Qudoosi, the advisor to the Punjab chief minister and Raja Javed Ikhlas, the PML candidate for Rawalpindi district nazim, also attended the meeting.

After the meeting, Basharat Raja told reporters that the ruling party, in consultation with its coalition partners, had nominated candidates for tehsil nazims in the Rawalpindi district.

He said the PML and its allies enjoyed a vast majority in Rawalpindi tehsils and district.

"Our man would again be elected as next nazim of Rawalpindi," he said.

The minister said the opposition had so far failed to find appropriate candidates for the tehsil and district councils and they would lose the third phase of local council elections to PML favourites in Rawalpindi.

He said the PML and its allies would run a door-to-door election campaign for the success of their candidates.

He said the nomination of former district nazim Raja Tariq Kiyani by Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz came as a pleasant surprise to him.

"But Kiyani sahib grabbing the nazim slot once again would be a distant dream", he said.

About the strike call given by joint opposition groups, the minister said the people disregarded the call and continued with their daily affairs.

"The strike call drew a poor public response. No shutter-down or wheel-jam was observed in the province especially in Rawalpindi", he claimed.