LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is considering using all resources to ensure a smooth victory in the next general election in the province, with a special focus on constituencies in the southern Punjab.
Sources privy to the arrangements being done by the PML-N leadership through provincial resources confided to Pakistan Today that Shaukat Javed, member of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), was playing an instrumental role in preparing a plan of technical engineering of the next general election for the PML-N in Punjab, besides managing any of the by-polls to be held in the province.He is also believed to be playing a vital role for bringing meaningful political groups and influential people from various parts of Punjab in the PML-N’s fold and garnering support for the PML-N in southern Punjab is one of his major tasks, sources said.
They claimed that Javed, who was the joint director general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Punjab during Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) government, had defected to the PML-N with a “roadmap of election management” in the province during the caretaker set up of 2008, consequently turning the tables on the PML-Q and bringing enormous majority to the PML-N’s side.The sources said Javed had devised a smart plan to engineer poll rigging during the 2008 elections by managing 5,000 votes in provincial assembly constituency and 8,000 votes in National Assembly constituency for the PML-Q, however, he anticipated the PML-N popularity and joined the Sharifs with his master plan, adding additional seats to their fold in the result of 2008 polls.
As a reward, he was appointed the chief of Punjab Police by the PML-N government and appointed member of PPSC after retirement from where “he is managing information gathering agencies and administrative services falling under purview of the Punjab government to achieve political targets of his bosses in Raiwind”. According to the circles privy to the plan, Javed is one of the key members of the shadow team of the PML-N making preparations for the next election, whether held on time or earlier.
They said Javed enjoyed good relations with several political figures of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PML-Q and other political stakeholders in Punjab who mattered in making and breaking the political order of the province. The sources said that the Special Branch of the Punjab Police was working in close coordination with Javed and several of his proposals had become the line of action of the provincial intelligence service.
Javed has proposed a special elite political cell in the provincial intelligence agency that should work under his direct command, besides getting sophisticated eavesdropping and laser wave catching gadgets for the proposed cell, without the knowledge of three prime intelligence agencies – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau.
The sources said Javed was also creating assets for the PML-N in provincial information gathering agencies and administration with a view of solid assistance sources in case the next polls were held under an unfriendly or alien set up. In pursuance of the proposed strategy, a cell of the Special Branch has been set up at Club Road near the Chief Minister’s House under the supervision of a superintendent of police. When the spokesman of Punjab government, Senator Pervez Rashid, was contacted, he strongly contradicted the information and declared it a dirty propaganda by the opposition. – PT
