Amidst the hundreds of contests today, there are some that will be more closely watched than others, for a variety of reasons.
Amir Wasim Published February 8, 2024 Updated about 10 hours ago
Aftab Ahmed
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WITH around 5,000 candidates contesting for 265 National Assembly seats today, things are expected to get quite chaotic when results start trickling in later today evening. With voters eager to find out if their favoured candidates are ahead and where their favourite party stands in the race to ‘win’ the general election, every single constituency will count.
Amidst the hundreds of contests today, there are some that will be more closely watched than others, for a variety of reasons. These could include areas which are battleground constituencies due to their swing potential, areas where two or more strong candidates are contesting, or areas which are likely to see heightened tensions due to the prominence or history of the people involved.
Given the contestants’ political mettle, these will not be easy fights for any of the candidates involved.
NA-10 Buner
Imran Khan’s successor, PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan is contesting against the former MNA from this constituency, Sher Akbar Khan, as well as Bakht Jahan Khan of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), who is a former speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Sher Akbar won the last election on a PTI ticket with 58,317 votes, but is now with the PTI-Parliamentarian, a breakaway faction of the PTI led by former defence minister and KP chief minister Pervez Khattak. Though there are eight candidates in total for NA-10, a triangular contest is expected between these three.
Sher Akbar previously won this seat in the 2013 elections on a JI ticket, as well as in the 2002 election on a PPP-Sherpao ticket. Barrister Gohar previously contested the election from this constituency on a PPP ticket in 2008 and was the runner-up that year, with over 18,000 votes. Both Sher Akbar and Barrister Gohar had lost to ANP’s Abdul Mateen Khan that year. Likewise, Bakht Jahan had contested a by-election on this seat as an independent in 2008 but had lost with a margin of just 787 votes. The turnout in this constituency has been on the rise, from 27.2 per cent in 2008 to 35pc in 2013 and 41pc in 2018.
NA-41 Lakki Marwat
There are 39 candidates vying for NA-41, of which 33 are independents. Here, too, a triangular contest is expected between Asjad Mehmood of the JUI-F, Sher Afzal Marwat of the PTI, and former senator Salim Saifullah Khan, an independent. The area is considered a stronghold of the JUI-F, which has retained the seat since 2002 in all general elections except 2008, when Humayun Saifullah of the PML-Q had emerged victorious against Pir Zakori Sharif of the MMA.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman won the seat in 2013 by defeating Salim Saifullah, who had contested the polls on a PML-N ticket. Fazlur Rehman eventually vacated the seat, but his brother, Maulana Attaur Rehman, could not retain it in the by-election and lost to Amirullah Marwat of the PTI, who had the support of the Saifullah brothers.
In the 2018 elections, the Saifullah brothers were not in the election arena from their home district but had forged an alliance with the PTI. That year, the JUI-F’s Muhammad Anwar defeated the PTI’s Ishfaq Ahmed Khan by securing 91,396 votes. Ishfaq Ahmed, who bagged 81,859 votes, is contesting this year as an independent.
For this year, the Maulana has fielded his son, Asjad. Salim Saifullah is backed by the Marwat Qaumi Ittehad (MQI), an electoral alliance formed by his family with support from other political parties and tribal chiefs. Mufti Abdul Ghani, a prominent religious scholar and a close aide of Fazlur Rehman, is also supporting him.
PTI Central Vice-President Sher Afzal was previously allied with the Saifullah brothers in local politics, and it was their joint efforts that led to the formation of the MQI. Though he is a strong candidate, it is expected that the division within the PTI and the MQI may ultimately benefit the JUI-F.
NA-44 D.I. Khan-I