GUJRAT: The PML-Q candidates in the 12 urban union councils of the Gujrat Municipal Corporation have called upon their leader Pervaiz Elahi to participate in their election campaign `to counter the pressure tactics of the ruling PML-N.

The demand was made by the candidates for chairmen and vice chairmen slots of the city`s UCs at a meeting held at the residence of former city nazim Asghar Telwala whose son Hasnain Asghar is a chairman slot candidate of the PML-Q from UC 4.

The participants expressed theirconcern over reports of what they called `political victimisation` of the `Q` candidates by the ruling party and the administration through registration of fabricated cases.

A participant told Dawn that some of the candidates feeling a lack of interest by the party leadership in the ongoing election campaign had urged them not to leave them alone at a crucial stage of the campaign.

He said though Pervaiz Elahi (an MNA from NA-105) was a national level leader and could not spend much time in Gujrat, still it was his hometown and constituency which required more attention than anyother part of Punjab.

Sources said some of the candidates wanted to utilise the influence of Pervaiz Elahi for making contacts with the PTI leadership for seat adjustments.

Meanwhile, absence from the election campaign of another family member, Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain, who had been elected twice as district council chairman (1991 and 1998) and twice as district nazim (2001 and 2005), has also been noticed by the local party cadres.

This is the first time no member of the family is in the run from anywhere in the district in the local elections.