GUJRAT: The government`s decision to invite maximum four ruling party chairmen from the constituency of each lawmaker (MNA, MPA) to the Dec 22 convention at Islamabad to be addresse d by the prime minister, has put the local administration in a fix.

The limited space in the convention centre and the huge number of the PML-N ticket holders winning the top slots (in rural and urban areas) in the local poll has apparently forced the government to fix a `quota` of the invitees to the event.

So the district administrations in the province have been directed to send maximum four elected chairmen from the constituency of each MNA and MPA of the ruling party to the event.

The timing of the event, to be held ahead of elections for district councils and municipalities top slots, has further complicated the task for the district administration as well as the lawmakers, who can`t afford to annoy any of the local government representatives by dropping their name from the list at this critical juncture. Obviously, everyone wants to attend the convention.

A district government official told Dawn that some 43 elected chairmen of the PML-N out of the total 127, including those of 115 rural and 12 urban union councils of the district, were requisitioned by the federal government for participation in the convention.

Independent winners who later joinedthe ruling party could also be sent to the event, he added.

He said some of the ruling party lawmakers had protested the fixing of `quota` for them and at least two senior legislators of the PML-N had even declined to accept the condition, demanding that all elected chairmen of their constituencies be invited to event.

One of the lawmakers, requesting anonymity, said keeping in view the situation, the government should either postpone the Islamabad event till conclusion of election of district councils and municipalities top slots or at least change the venue where to a place where maximum number of elected representatives could be accommodated.

Otherwise, he said, it would prove counter productive for the ruling party party at local level.

INTERVIEW: MNA Hamza Shahbaz will interview the aspirants to PML-N tickets for Gujrat district council and seven municipalities slots on Friday (Dec 18) in Lahore.

Nawabzada Tahirul Mulk (nephew of MNA Nawabzada Mazhar Ali Khan), Mian Sher Afgan (scion of MPA Tariq Dinga), Tanveer Kotla (brother of MNA Abid Kotla) and the cousin of another MNA Jaafar Iqbal have applied for the Gujrat district council.

Nasir Mahmood, Yousuf Gull and Ashraf Rehania are candidates for the Gujrat Municipal Committee (MC) mayor.

In Lalamusa, Dinga and Sara-iAlamgir towns, party-bacl(ed independents will compete each other.