G-B Council polls result raises controversy in PPP

ISLAMABAD - The setback suffered by the PPP in Gilgit-Baltistan Councils elections held on March 18 has led to a serious controversy within the party ranks, sources informed on Friday.
The sources informed TheNation that the controversy started after the PPP, the majority party in the G-B Legislative Assembly, could secure only four out of six seats of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council. While remaining two seats of the Council were secured one each by the JUI (F) and an independent candidate. The total number of seats in G-B Council is 15.
The sources were of the view that although the PPP had maintained its majority in the G-B Council, yet the results of the elections had raised many eyebrows among the PPP ranks and files. According to the informed sources, the main question being discussed among the PPP local cadres was how the two of the party candidates who were officially awarded tickets along with the four winners had lost their elections.
We are going to take up the matter with President Asif Ali Zardari as to why the two out of six PPP ticket holders had lost the elections, a senior PPP leader said. The sources informed that those PPP candidates who had won the elections were Amjad Hussain Advocate, Prof Ghulam Hussain Saleem, Wazir Ibadat and Mohammad Ibrahim, while Muhammad Iqbal and Dilshad Bano could not win the elections for unknown reasons.
According to the sources, the losers are blaming the G-B Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah and PPP central leader Chaudhry Manzoor, who is said to be a confidant of the Acting Governor and Federal Information Minister Qamaruz Zaman Kaira.
While Maulana Attaullah Shahab from JUI (F) and Saeed Afzal (Independent) were also declared successful. Interestingly, none of the other political players including the PML-Q, MQM and PML-N had fielded their candidates for the Councils elections.
The 15-member Council to be headed by the Prime Minister Gilani has six local members directly elected by the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly while eight members would be inducted from the federal ministries.