On July 17, Punjab Assembly power will be at stake as the battle for the province’s 20 seats intensifies.
The PML-N wants to keep its tight grip on the most significant political region of Pakistan, while the PTI wants to wrest control of it from the ruling party. Muhammad Asim Nazeer of the PTI is a member of parliament representing the NA-101 district, which includes PP-97.
2018 winner: Muhammad Ajmal Cheema won the provincial seat in 2018. He ran as an independent but later joined the PTI at the urging of billionaire Jahangir Khan Tareen.
Cheema was banned this year by the Pakistani Race Commission for casting a ballot against his party in the Punjab chief minister election. Ajmal Cheema of the PML-N was initially thought to have a decent chance of winning when the campaign got off because he has a sizable support base in the district and was able to defeat PTI’s Afzal Sahi in 2018 by more than 4,000 votes.
After that, add the sizable PML-N electorate in PP-97 to Cheema’s total. Even though the PML-N candidate finished third in 2018, they still received over 35,000 votes.
However, there is one issue that can cost Cheema the election. The PML-N is miffed that a politician with a history of switching political parties was given the ticket. This is another reason the PML-N leadership has not yet publicly supported Cheema in the constituency.
