BY USMAN MUJTABA LEGHARI DG KHAN: NA-191 DG Khan-III, a constituency which includes DG Khan City and consists mostly of the urban population, has been ruled by feudal lords for long, particularly Leghari and Khosa sardars (chieftains).
A neck to neck contest is expected among three contestants which include former federal minister Sardar Awais Khan Leghari contesting from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), former Punjab chief minister Sardar Dost Muhammad Khosa contesting as an independent on the symbol of jeep, and Zartaj Gul Wazir contesting from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafs (PTI) ticket.
In PP-289, PTI candidate Dr Shahina Najeeb is contesting against PML-N candidate Syed Abdul Aleem Shah, while Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan Khosa and Hanif Pitafi are contesting as independent candidates.
From PP-290, former MPA Sardar Ahmad Ali Khan Dareshak is contesting from PTI ticket against PML-Ns Sardar Muhammad Ahmad Khan Leghari.
CHAKWAL -- After losing twice to the Sardars of Tamman in NA-65 (Chakwal-II), PML-Q stalwart Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has managed to win over Sardar Mumtaz Khan Tamman who has been elected MNA twice on a PML-N ticket but did not receive one for this general election.
The PML-N stunned workers and voters recently with the announcement that instead of MNA Sardar Mumtaz Khan Tamman, the party had given a ticket to Sardar Mohammad Faiz Tamman, his nephew.
He was brought into the PML-N in 2010 when the party was struggling to find a suitable candidate for a by-election after the sudden resignation of Sardar Faiz Tamman.
Mr Tamman won the election, defeating Sardar Mansoor Hayat Tamman the current PTI district president who was then running as an independent.
Regardless of Khethran's innocence or guilt, the fact is that Baloch sardars are notorious for being unusually unruly and harsh with government officials and it goes without saying that they are demigods to their tribesmen and decide in matters of life and death of their respective tribes.
The incident of Khetran's arrest proves that the Baloch sardars can be as easily arrested as any other citizen in the country.
Khetran, nonetheless, is not the only Baloch sardar who has been nominated in an FIR at a police station; there are countless police reports wherein thousands of sardars, their family members and tribesmen are named as main accused or accomplices in murder, attempted murder robbery, kidnapping cases.
Some of these accused sardars, their family members and tribesmen, even those who have warrants by courts for their arrest, freely attend various social events in the provincial capital in the presence of top government officials.