LAHORE: The PML-N will not ask the PPP to withdraw its candidate in the Khushab by-poll.

“It had been decided in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that the PPP would not field its candidate in the by-poll against the seat vacated by the PML-N but it (PPP) did not honour the commitment,” PML-N Punjab information secretary Azma Bokhari told Dawn on Friday.

“We will not ask the PPP to withdraw its candidate in favour of the PML-N in Khushab or elsewhere.”

She said the PPP would come to know how many votes it bagged in by-polls in Punjab.

The PPP has awarded a ticket to Ghulam Habib Ahmed for PP-84 Khushab by-poll. The seat fell vacant after the death of PML-N MPA Waris Kalu.

The PML-N has awarded the ticket to Kalu’s son Barrister Muazzam.

In the recent Daska and Wazirabad by-polls, the PPP had supported the PML-N candidates. After the election for the opposition leader in the Senate, the gulf between the two mainstream parties of the PDM widened.

Also, the PML-N has criticized the Punjab administration over the ‘missing’ 550 shots of the Covid-19 vaccine from the Services Hospital.

“How come the corona vaccine disappeared from the hospital as it seemed that some ‘VIPs’ had been accommodated?” Ms Bokhari said in a statement.

She alleged 350 covid vaccine shots had expired because of out-of-order freezers in the Mozang Hospital.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2021