Pakistan Awami Tehreek Lahore (PAT) has announced the names of its candidates for elections in cantonment boards. The candidates will contest elections on the symbol of ‘bucket’. The electoral manifesto titled ‘cleanliness is half of the faith and every street is lit’ has also been prepared. The party will enter into seat adjustment with the like-minded parties in areas where it would not field its candidates. A five-member committee has been constituted for this purpose. The committee will be headed by Raja Zahid Mahmood with Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal Gujjar, Hafiz Ghulam Farid, Habibullah Butt, and Saqib Bhatti serving as members.

The candidates who have been awarded party tickets are Haji Barkat Ali for UC-3, Sajjad Khan for UC-5, Shahbaz Akram Butt for UC-6, Chaudhry Irshad Ali for UC-7, Dr Mahmood Rehmani for UC-8, Abdur Razzaq Butt for UC-9, and Imran Saddique for UC-10. The candidates will run their electoral campaign in the light of ten-point revolutionary agenda of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri. A special meeting of ticket holders was held in the central secretariat for this purpose.

Addressing the meeting, PAT President Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi said that local government elections were possible due to the Supreme Court’s ruling and the pressure generated by the Islamabad sit-in. He said that the people would not vote for the enemies of the local government institutions and candidates of the rulers responsible for Model Town tragedy. He said that the LG institutions were left at the mercy of the government officers for seven years and they were turned into dens of corruption, loot and plunder and nepotism during this period.

In his views on the occasion, Raja Zahid Mahmood said that the PML-N MNAs, MPAs and ministers are running the campaign for their candidates in the LG elections. He said that the effort is being made to buy votes of the people in return for promises of development projects. He said that we had informed the Chief Election Commissioner about electoral activities of the Federal Minister for Railways but no action has so far been taken. He said that if the government intervention was not stopped in the electoral process, the LG elections will also be rigged massively like the general elections of May 2013.