PTI’s candidate bags Kohistan seat unopposed

Opposing candidates say they were convinced to withdraw nominations by Palas Kolai elders

ABBOTTABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged the provincial assembly seat in Kohistan after no other candidate filed nomination papers to contest for the seat.

As a result, the adviser to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Zar Gul Khan was elected unopposed for PK-62 Kohistan-II seat even though the elections for the seat are scheduled for May 5. “Zar Gul Khan has been elected as MPA from PK-62 unopposed as no one else filed nomination papers by 4pm today,” Noor Khitab Khan, the district election commissioner, told The Express Tribune.

He said that as per the election schedule announced by the ECP for by-elections on the seat, the candidates were required to file nomination papers between April 8 to 10. However, Khan said that Returning Officer Zeeshan Khan had received only one nomination paper by the deadline on Monday.

A formal official notification of Gul Khan being declared as the winner would be issued by the ECP later, he said. The seat had fallen vacant after Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) MPA from PK-62 Maulana Asmatullah, had resigned from his seat on March 11.

Deals

Asmatullah’s resignation came after he struck a deal with the government and the PTI that Palas Kolai would be declared as a district in exchange for his seat. Moreover, elders from Palas Kolai had agreed to back the PTI’s candidate for the seat.

Meanwhile, Atiqueur Rehman, one of the prospective candidates for PK-62 contesting on a ticket of Qaumi Watan Party of Aftab Sherpao, told The Express Tribune that he and two other candidates had obtained nomination papers but a local tribal jirga convinced them to not to file them.

“I was forced by elders of Palas Kolai Committee, who came to my home with a Jirga, requesting me not to file papers against PTI’s candidate,” Rehman said. He added that Afzal Kohistani and Abdullah were the two other candidates who had also obtained nomination papers but were convinced to withdraw their candidacy.

He said that the jirga members reminded him of the commitment that the elders of Palas Kolai Action Committee had made to with K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for electing his party’s candidate unopposed.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2017.