Daily Times

CHAKWALAfter the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday turned down his appeal against disqualification from the ECP, Sardar Ghulam Abbas stuck to his previous stance and refused to openly support or oppose the candidate chosen by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf in his place following the ECP’s verdict.

His nephew Sardar Aftab Akbar’s appeal against disqualification over concealment of assets was also cancelled by the court. He was a candidate for PP-23.

Speaking to Daily Times, Sardar Abbas said he would file another appeal against his disqualification in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He said until the SC had ruled on the matter, he could not say anything with certainty about supporting or opposing Sardar Zulifqar Ali Khan Dullah, the candidate picked from the influential Sardar tribe by the PTI after Sardar Abbas’s disqualification.

Chakwal’s NA-64 has traditionally seen contests featuring a motley group of retired army officers turned businessmen and the Sardars who+ rally around and against the PML-N.

He left PML-N to join the PTI in May this year but his party ticket was revoked after he was disqualified over concealment of assets

Sardar Abbas’s political trajectory features stints with almost all major parties: PML-N, PTI, PPP and PML-Q. After starting his political career with the PPP in the 1980s, the sardar eventually landed in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and stayed with it till 2011 when he joined the PTI following the October jalsa that put the party on the national electoral map. In 2012, however, he developing differences with the party leadership and left it to contest the 2013 general election as an independent. He secured over a hundred thousand votes in the election but still lost to Major (retd) Mubashir of PML-N.

In 2016, Sardar Abbas joined the PML-N only to part ways with it in May this year, citing former PM Nawaz Sharif’s interview to daily Dawn as his reason for it.

Soon after his resignation, he was welcomed by PTI chairman Imran Khan who awarded him the party ticket for NA-64.

Before he was awarded the PTI ticket for the NA seat, Sardar Dullah, who remained an MPA from 2013 to 2018 on a PML-N ticket, was canvassing in PP-23 as the PML-N candidate. He was quick to switch sides when offered with the ticket for the NA seat.

A wealthy businessman, Sardar Dullah graduated with a degree in law from the University of Karachi in 1997. He has served as the chairman of the National Manpower Bureau and the Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association, as the chief executive of the National Livestock and Meat Processing, as a member of the Zonal Committee Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis.

Published in Daily Times, July 6^th 2018.