Muzaffarabad, Feb 19: Five candidates from three main political parties withdrew their nomination papers here on Saturday, leaving six in the fray for the four vacant seats of the Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) Council.
Polling is slated for Tuesday and is believed to determine the political fate of many individuals and organizations wielding influence and power in the region.
According to election commission officials, of the three candidates from the main opposition Peoples Party (PP-PaK), Raja Shaukat had withdrawn his nomination, leaving Sardar Manzoor Ahmed Khan (Sudhnoti district) and Chaudhry Muhammad Mehboob (Kotli district) in the contest
Mukhtar Abbasi of ruling Muslim Conference had also withdrawn his candidature, so as to let Sardar Saghir Chughtai (Poonch district) and Chaudhry Mohammad Khan (basically from Kotli but settled in the UK) take part in the election.
Award of tickets to Chughtai and Khan by the MC, which is in a position to bag two seats, had exposed fissures in the party, with some of its senior leaders publicly alleging that their leadership had received millions of rupees in illegal gratification from the duo for the “unwarranted” favour.
Of the four candidates of the PML-N, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, Sardar Riaz Khan and Sardar Nasim Sarfraz had withdrawn their candidature, leaving their colleague Sardar Muhammad Naeem MLA (Kotli district) in the fray.
Though many PML-N PaK chapter leaders have long been accusing Sardar Abdul Qayum Khan’s family of practicing the “politics of heredity” in the region, but the party’s decision about its candidate for the Council election showed they were no exception.
Sardar Naeem is younger brother of former PaK premier Sardar Sikandar Hayat who wants his son, Farooq Sikandar, to contest the forthcoming general election to the legislative assembly from their native (Nakyal) constituency.
On February 3, Farooq Sikandar completed his 5-year term as a member of the PaK Council.
For the very reason, some cynics were also branding the PML-N PaK chapter as “Rajput League.”
When this correspondent put these questions to party’s chief organizer Raja Farooq Haider and secretary organizing committee Shah Ghulam Qadir through text messages, they did not respond.
However, a non-Rajput PML-N leader responded that “(though) it’s not a Rajput League but out of its 9 MLAs 7 are from Rajput clan and they could have split.”
The sixth candidate in the fray is Raja Babar Ali Zulqarnain, son of PaK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan, who was proposed and seconded by speaker Chaudhry Anwaar ul Haq and prime minister’s special assistant Nasreen Mazhar Rani.
Young Zulqarnain’s stay in the contest had given rise to speculations that he might have stuck a deal with some lawmakers to sail through the election.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST