Sardar Mehtab in a fix as 124 candidates clear scrutiny

Murtaza Abbasi likely to be handed PML-N ticket at cost of Mehtab

ABBOTTABAD: After the first round of filtering, as many as 124 candidates are left in the running for the two national and four provincial assembly seats in Abbottabad.

Once the scrutiny process is completed, this list is expected to become leaner as covering candidates withdraw in favour of their party’s respective favoured candidates.

For NA-15 Abbottabad-1, 20 candidates are in the running.



From NA-16 Abbottabad-2, 23 candidates are still in the race. For the four provincial assembly seats, including PK-36, 26 candidates had filed their papers.

For PK-37 Abbottabad-I, 21 candidates had filed papers, for PK-38 Abbottabad-II, 20 are in the running and for PK-39 Abbottabad-III, 24 had filed papers.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have already announced their candidates for the national and provincial assembly seats.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), though, has yet to reach a consensus on whom to award tickets for the national assembly and provincial assembly seats and is said to be still searching for suitable candidates. This extended search, though, has delayed their electoral campaign in the region and now run the risk of falling behind rivals.

A number of candidates have decided to run as independents after they were ignored by their parties. They too have started their election campaigns with full vigour.



NA-15 tussle

In NA-15, the main competitor appears to be the PML-N leader and former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi.

His main rival appears to be the former deputy national assembly speaker Murtaza Javed Abbassi.

The PML-N was tempted to hand the ticket to Murtaza given that Mehtab had also filed papers from the capital in NA-53 — though that route became difficult after the returning officer in the capital rejected the former adviser to the premier on aviation’s nomination papers.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2018.