Rohail Asgher’s son denied ticket, to contest polls independently

LAHORE: PMLN may suffer a serious setback and PTI can become ultimate beneficiary of the prevailing situation in PP-152 from where Khurrem Rohail Asgher, son of seasoned politician Sheikh Rohail Asgher has announced to contest as independent candidate after being denied ticket from PMLN.

PMLN has awarded ticket to the former MPA Malik Waheed from PP-152 who has won his seat two times consecutively from here. This seat falls under NA-121 from where PMLN has fielded four times MNA Sheikh Rohail Asgher, who was elected MPA in 1990 from the same area. Sheikh Rohail's father Sheikh Asgher served as PPP MPA from the same area in 1977.

Khurrem Rohail himself contested the 2002 election on PMLQ ticket from the then NA-124 against PPP's Aitezaz Ahsen. In that contest, Aitezaz got around 27,000 votes whereas two candidates contesting against him, including Khurrem Rohail and MMA's Ashraf Asif Jalali got around 23,000 votes each. The split of votes between two anti-PPP camps benefitted Aitezaz, who previously served as MNA in 1988, 1990.

Another significant fact related to this area is that Sheikh Rohail Asgher and his younger brother Sheikh Shakeel got elected as MNA and MPA respectively while in prison in the 1985 non-party basis polls. Sheikh Rohail's group is considered most significant in this particular area as Sheikh Rohail himself has not only been winning from here with big margins but his candidature in independent capacity has also damaged the other ticket holders.

One such example was seen in 1993, when having being denied ticket of PMLN from the then PP-118, Sheikh Rohail contested the election as independent candidate and bagged more than 9,000 votes which eventually resulted in the loss of PMLN candidate Haji Imdad Hussein who lost to PPP's Hanif Ramay.

In that contest, Hanif Ramay got 32,013 votes followed by PMLN's Haji Imdad who got 30,395 votes. The margin between victory and defeat was around 1,600 votes whereas independent candidate Sheikh Rohail Asgher got 9,435 votes in that contest. This was the only seat PMLN lost from urban areas of Lahore.

Now in 2024, in case Khurrem Rohail contested the election as independent candidate, his personal vote bank would not go to PMLN and under the present situation, which is by no means like 2008 or 2013, Nawaz League would have a real testing time to maintain its winning streak and PTI could become ultimate beneficiary of the situation.

Talking to The News, Khurrem Rohail confirmed that he has decided to contest as independent candidate. He said he was a stalwart of Nawaz Sharif, who had taught him to stand with justice.