The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz has announced its candidates for the by-elections to be held in two constituencies of Punjab where the polling will be held on 19th February next month. The by-elections will be held on one seat of National Assembly and one seat of Provincial Assembly. According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the polling for NA-75 (Sialkot) and PP-51 (Gujranwala) will be held on 19th February while the ECP will display the list of final candidates on January 20.
PML-N has awarded ticket of both the seats to woman candidates.
From NA-75 Sialkot, Nosheen Iftikhar will be the candidate of PML-N while the party has awarded ticket to Mrs Talat Manzoor Cheema from PP-51 Gujranwala. Both the seats fell vacant after the deaths of both the lawmakers last year. These two seats are believed to be the stronghold of PML-N as the party enjoys a massive vote bank in both Sialkot and Gujranwala districts. From NA-75, Syed Iftikhar ul Hassan Shah, commonly known as Zahray Shah got elected in 2018 elections on the ticket of PML-N. He had earlier enjoyed his three stints as MNA and two tenures of MPAs. Syed Zahray Shah had been the key figure in the politics of Daska (Sialkot) for last three decades and the party has decided to award ticket to his daughter Nosheen Iftikhar to give tough time to the ruling party. Zahray Shah grabbed this seat with a huge margin in 2018 elections as his party PML-N won all the NA seats from Sialkot in last elections.
From PP-51 Gujranwala, Shaukat Manzoor Cheema of PML-N won the seat with an impressive margin in 2018 but he lost his life to Covid-19 last year unfortunately. The party has awarded this ticket to Mrs Talat Manzoor Cheema to give tough time to the ruling PTI. It is worth mentioning here that Gujranwala is one of the strongest districts of PML-N in Punjab as the party has all the provincial and national assembly seats to its fold.
PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan said that party’s supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and President Shehbaz Sharif have given a go ahead to the recommendations of the parliamentary board and therefore these two candidates were announced after getting approval from Sharif brothers. He further added that the election committees have been constituted in both the constituencies and all the ticket holders, MNAs and MPAs of PML-N from these districts will play their roles in getting them elected. It is also likely that PPP will not field its candidate in these two constituencies as the party will support the PML-N. In response, the PML-N will not field its candidates in the by-elections to be held in Sindh. By-polls for Sindh Assembly’s PS-43 (Sanghar III) and PS-88 (Malir II) will be held on February 16.
It is pertinent to mention here that Vice President of PML-N Maryam Nawaz also interviewed both the candidates. She also chaired a meeting of party’s MNAs and MPAs from both Gujranwala and Sialkot districts to devise the strategy for the by-elections to be held on February 19.