PML-N awards contentious NA-121 ticket to Rohail Asghar

• Rohail to contest polls from NA-121, while Ayaz gets NA-120.
• PML-N's Tarar to contest against Bilawal in NA-127.
• Nawaz, Shehbaz, Hamza and Maryam to also contest from Lahore.

Lahore: As the February 8 general elections come close, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided to field veteran politician Sheikh Rohail Asghar for the contentious NA-121 constituency in Lahore, the party announced on Friday.

Ayaz Sadiq — who was also jostling for the NA-121 — will contest the election from NA-120 on the party's ticket.

With hopes for another big contest in Lahore, the PML-N has fielded former minister Attaullah Tarar against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari in NA-127, Geo News reported.

Other major leaders who have been handed out NA tickets in Lahore include party's supremo Nawaz Sharif (NA-130), President Shehbaz Sharif (NA-123), Hamza Shehbaz Sharif (NA-118), Maryam Nawaz Sharif (NA-119, NA-159) and Khawaja Saad Rafique (NA-122), among others.

Party leader Senator Ishaq Dar posted about the development on his official X handle.

For the provincial assembly seats, Shehbaz will also contest polls from PP-164 and PP-158, while Hamza and Maryam will fight for a seat in the PP-147 and PP-159 constituencies, respectively.

Meanwhile, the party has awarded a PP-151 ticket to Sohail Shaukat Butt, who also wished to contest the polls from the NA-120 constituency. He will now withdraw his nomination papers on the party's direction.

Sheikh Rohail wanted NA-121

It should be noted that the senior politicians, as per The News, had engaged in a heated argument over securing their desired constituency in Lahore during PML-N's parliamentary board meeting last month.

Both party leaders wanted a ticket for the coveted NA-121 seat in the provincial capital.

Sheikh Rohail was adamant before the party leadership, demanding the ticket from the constituency saying that it was his home ground. Former speaker of the National Assembly Sadiq was also a candidate for the party ticket from the same constituency.

The sources had mentioned that Sheikh Rohail had informed the meeting that NA-121 was his native constituency, and he intended to contest elections from there. If the party ticket was not granted to him, he declared his intention to contest as an independent candidate.

Furthermore, Sheikh Rohail pointed out that in 2018, a part of his constituency was included in Sadiq’s constituency. Consequently, he and his workers had campaigned for Sadiq. He questioned why, now that he has regained his original constituency, should not contest from his traditional home constituency.

The sources had said that Sheikh Rohail emphasised that he had not submitted nomination papers from any other constituency, leaving him with no other option but to contest the election from this constituency.

In the meeting, Sadiq presented data on his old and new constituencies before the parliamentary board. The former NA speaker claimed that about 56% of his old constituency was included in NA-121.

He, however, said that he was committed to party discipline and would accept every decision of the leadership regarding the ticket. On the other hand, Sheikh Rohail immediately left the party meeting after his speech.