HAFIZABAD: Strenuous efforts made by some elders to effect reconciliation between district president Chaudhry Mehdi Hassan’s Bhatti group and Kharal group of Rai Jahangir Ali Kharal, ex-tehsil nazim and his elder brother Rai Riasat Ali ended in fiasco as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders failed to accommodate them by awarding a ticket.
Meanwhile, die-hard activists of PTI, who had organised the party, including Chaudhry Amanullah Sandhu, ex-president PTI and general secretary DBA, at grass-roots level have expressed their resentment over ignoring them in award of tickets. He said that the family members of feudal lords and turncoats have been awarded tickets which is negation of the vision and manifesto of the party.
The politics of the district looms around two arch-rivals, Mian Afzal Hussain Tarar and Chaudhry Mehdi Hassan Bhatti, for the past two decades. But following differences between Mehdi Hassan Bhatti and his younger brother, former federal minister Liaquat Abbas Bhatti as well as his age-old friends and business partners Rai brothers of Geegy Bangar, a third major political group, headed by Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, emerged last night when a meeting of the independent group, led by Chaudhry Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, ex-MPA PML-N Asadullah Arain, Pir Shoaib Shah Nawaz of Pindi Bhattian, Pir Syed Waseem-ul-Hassan Naqvi of Jamat-tul-Suffa, ex-president PTI Chaudhry Amanullah Sandhu and others held a meeting at the ‘dera’ of Haji Rai Riasat Ali Kharal, where it was decided to field their joint candidates against the PTI, PML-N and PPP candidates.