Political temperatures rise in Abbottabad

Candidates set to file nomination papers in coming days

ABBOTTABAD:

Political activities have been gaining momentum in Abbottabad like other parts of the country amid the announcement of the election schedule by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Political parties and independent candidates are set to file their nomination papers from December 20 onwards.

As many as 175 political parties registered with ECP will contest in the general elections.

Returning officers have been nominated to conduct the elections. Most of the returning officers are deputy commissioners of their respective districts.

Abbottabad has two national and four provincial assembly seats for which 0.9 million voters including 0.4 million male and over 0.4 million female voters will cast their right to franchise. Besides Pakistan People's Party and Jamat-e-Islami, no other party have so far arranged party meetings in the city while former chief minister and Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan announced to contest election as an independent candidate on both national & provincial assembly seats.

After the delimitations of National Assembly constituencies, some areas of Bakote and Bagen were included in NA 16 which were earlier part of NA 17.

During the 2018 general elections, Murtaza Javed Abbassi of PML-N was elected from NA 16 while Ali Khan Jadoon of PTI won the seat the NA 17. Sardar Mehtab who has a track record of winning from NA 17 did not contest in 2018. PML-N awarded the party ticket to Mohabat Awan who lost the seat to Ali Khan Jadoon of PTI.

Ali Khan is the younger son of Former Federal Minister Ammanullah Khan Jadoon.

Read ECP says number of voters exceeds 128.5m

Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan who developed differences with PML (N), especially with former National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbassi, announced to contest the upcoming elections an independent candidate from NA 16.

Some of the political observers feel that Mehtab has announced to contest from NA 16 just to pressure the top leadership of PML (N) to secure a party ticket for NA 17 as well as provincial assembly seats, PK 42. Being a senior leader of PML (N), he had a long association with Nawaz Sharif and other party leaders. Sources say he will muster the support of senior leaders of the party to resolve the dispute in local party ranks. Sardar Mehtab started his career in the 1985 election as an independent candidate. He remained chief minister of KP from 1997 to 1999.

He did not contest the general elections in 2002 for the National Assembly and had to settle for being a senator in 2003.

Sardar Mehtab served as Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan from 2014 to 2016,

Political observers believe that if Sardar Mehtab contests from NA 16 as an independent candidate, it will directly harm PML-N’s vote bank. PM-N has always been commanding position in both the national assembly seats of Abbottabad and once Nawaz Sharif was elected from NA 16 due to party standing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2023.