Former federal minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal, who belongs to Mandi Bahauddin, has announced to form his own independent panel and participate in the upcoming general elections after separating from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) following the violent incidents of May 9.
Mr. Gondal said that two former MPAs Gulriz Afzal Chan and Sajid Ahmed Bhatti who were earlier associated with PTI and Muslim League (Q). They will also be part of the panel as candidates for two Punjab Assembly constituencies PP-67 (Qadirabad) and PP-68 (Malakwal), which fall under NA-80.
نذر محمد گوندل کا تحریک انصاف سے لاتعلقی کا اعلان
The announcement was made by the former district nazim of Mandi Bahauddin (2001-05) and two-time MNA of the People’s Party (1993 and 2008) while talking to reporters in Malakwal on Monday.
He joined the PTI after ending his decades-long association with the PPP and contested the 2018 general elections as the PTI’s nominee. However, he faced a major defeat at the hands of his PML-N rival Nasir Iqbal Bosal.
In response to a question, he said that after leaving PTI, he has decided not to join any party and will contest elections by forming his own independent panel to serve the people. He claimed to have consulted the Bhatti brothers (Muhammad Khan Bhatti, former secretary of the Punjab Assembly, a local political group) to forge an alliance in local electoral politics.
Earlier, the Bhatti group of PP67 has been a political ally of PML-N’s Nasir Bosal in Mandi Bahauddin local electoral politics since 2008. Mr Bhatti (nephew of Mohammad Khan Bhatti) won the PA seat as an independent candidate in alliance with the PML-N in 2018, but later joined the PML-Q.
Similarly, the same PA seat was won by the then PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and his son Munis Elahi in 2008 and 2013 with the support of the Bhatti group. However, he vacated the seat both times, and PPP’s Zulfiqar Gondal (Nazar Gondal’s younger brother) and PML N’s Akhtar Bosal (Nasir Bosal’s cousin) won the 2008 and 2013 by-elections respectively.
He vowed to defeat his opponents in the next elections and urged his supporters to start preparing for the upcoming elections.
