Guru Shahid Resham, the leader of the transgender community, will contest election on the seat of provincial assembly that lies vacant after the disqualification of Salman Naeem in PP-217. Hundreds of transgender community members attended the session chaired by Guru Shahid Resham in which he announced that he would contest polls against all the candidates including the incumbent foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Guru Shahid Resham said that he would focus on humanitarian issues and work for the rights of transgender community. He further said that no government worked for the betterment of transgender community as a result of which they ended up in begging or dancing on parties to earn their livelihood. Resham assured the transgender community that they would be given jobs, security and better standard of living. “I have decided to contest polls because when no one stands up for your rights, you should fight for your rights”, said Resham.
The members of transgender community including Rubi, Shabbana, Jan Chauhdry and others announced that they would collect funds collectively to bear the expenditure of the political campaign. They also said that they would go from door to door in their constituency to ask for the votes.
Political pundits are of the view that the disqualification of Salman Naeem has given another chance to Shah Mahmood Qureshi to become the Chief Minister of Punjab after winning this seat in the bye-elections. Salman Naeem bagged 35000 votes and defeated Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi on July 25 this year in the general elections.
Salman Naeem was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on October 1 for not meeting the age-limit for contesting the elections. The petition against Salman Naeem was filed by the PTI member Sheikh Mohammad Tahir, Chairman UC-47. Sheikh Mohammad Tahir said that if he was given ticket by the Prime Minister Imran Khan, he would contest the election in PP-217. He further denied all the allegations of vengeance as leveled by Salman Naeem. He denied all the allegations of involvement of Shah Mahmood Qureshi in this case and said that Salman Naeem was disqualified for mentioning wrong age and hiding his assets. He further said that the disqualification was not related to Shah Mahmood Qureshi or Jahangir Tareen.
Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2018.