Chowrangi

NA-78 Faisalabad is watching with keen interest a one-to-one contest between People’s Party’s (PPP) Rahila Perveen Baloch and PML-Q’s Rajab Ali Baloch. Both are from the same biradari and almost equal divisions of their biradari are supporting them.

This is the first election of Rahila Perveen Baloch, while Rajab Ali Baloch has the experience of National Assembly before. Rahila Perveen Baloch is the daughter of former MNA Shehadat Baloch and she is working in the light of her father’s experience and she also enjoys the support of popular Baloch biradari, which could be the decisive factor in this election.

Rajab Ali Baloch was the victor of 2002 polls and he got 57,701 votes on the ticket of PML-Q. His runner up was Peerzada Ashraf Zia of PML-N, who got 42,000 votes. This time Peerzada Ashraf Zia also got the ticket of PML-N, but then turned the coat and retired in favour of Rajab Ali Baloch. Pervaiz Elahi himself announced Zia’s decision in a resounding public meeting in Faisalabad. Local political pundits say that Zia wasn’t going to win the elections in any case, though he could exploit the divisions in Baloch biradari, but he cashed himself at the right time.

In order to call itself a nation-wide party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has also placed its candidate there, who goes by the name of Malik Amin Wattoo, but the serious candidates remain Perveen Baloch and Ali Baloch.

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