Battle lines revealed

ISLAMABAD:

Country’s political stage witnessed a flurry of activity as the deadline for submitting nomination papers ended on Sunday evening with several bigwigs in the political arena making their eleventh-hour bids, setting the scene for a riveting electoral showdown.

Though the two-day extended deadline for submission of nomination papers ended, some quipped that it was also the last date for snatching the nomination papers as several PTI candidates and their family members, among others, faced extreme difficulties in filing the papers.

For some, the submission of the nomination papers was smooth and easy but for several others, it added an extra layer of difficulties to the electoral process. On several occasions, the simple act of submitting nomination papers somehow drew the wrath of law-enforcement officials as they allegedly thwarted candidates and their family members’ moves with force and sheer humiliation.

The process of filing nominations was earlier supposed to be completed on Friday but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had extended the three days to five days at the request of the various political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The scrutiny process for nomination papers will commence on December 25 and continue until December 30. As per ECP data, a total of 175 registered political parties and an alliance – Grand Democratic Alliance – are taking part in the general elections.

ECP officials expressed their inability to share the total number of candidates right away, saying that the data compilation from 859 constituencies across national and provincial legislatures would take some time. However, the polls supervisor later said that 150 nomination papers had been filed for the reserved seats for minorities in the National Assembly.
In the five days allocated for filing of the nomination papers, several bigwigs of the political parties, including the former prime ministers and those who held key portfolios, submitted their nomination papers. They ranged from those declared disqualified by courts to those behind bars or hiding from state authorities in the wake of the May 9 incidents – the day when the civil and military institutions were attacked by the workers and supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Thought it is not certain at this stage as to who remains in the election arena and from where, because there are many more stages to come in process which will be followed in the coming days. These include acceptance or rejection of papers as well as the withdrawal of the candidature.

Among the political heavyweights, three-time former prime minister and supreme leader of the PML-N Nawaz Sharif also, submitted nomination papers for NA-130 Lahore. The PML-N supreme leader has also decided to contest elections from Mansehra’s NA-15.

Sharif has been re-entering into parliamentary politics after he was deposed in 2017 and later on disqualified for life. He recently returned home from London after ending his four-year-long self-imposed exile and has since been appearing before courts to get relief in the cases pending against him.

Nawaz’s nomination papers were submitted to the returning officer concerned by former MPA and provincial minister Bilal Yasin. The returning officer had fixed December 26 for the scrutiny of the nomination papers.

At least, 24 candidates have submitted their papers to contest elections from the constituency. The other candidates include PTI’s Dr Yasmin Rashid; who is in jail in the wake of May 9 attacks, PPP’s Ahmad Khan, PML-N’s Bilal Yasin and Waheed Alam Khan.

Nawaz’s daughter and PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz has also formally taken her first step of entering into parliamentary politics as she has submitted her nomination papers from NA-119 and NA-120, Lahore. Her nomination papers were also submitted for four provincial assembly seats; PP 159, PP 165, PP 160, and PP 80.

Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is the President of the PML-N, has submitted his nomination papers from NA-242 Karachi. The party spokespersons were approached to get information if Shehbaz has submitted nomination papers from any other constituency but they didn’t respond till the filing of the story.

Nawaz’s key opponent, former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan is currently in jail but ready to contest elections from behind bars as his party members have submitted his nomination papers from his hometown, Mianwali, as well as a constituency in Lahore - NA 89 & 122.

Surprising as it may seem, Nawaz and his daughter were in jail before the 2018 elections and Imran is in jail before the upcoming general elections of 2024. Though Imran recently got some relief from the Supreme Court, political experts conjecture that his chances of coming out of prison before the February 8 polls are slim. PTI’s incumbent chairman, Barrister Gohar Khan, submitted his nomination papers from Buner (NA-10).

Another big political player, the President of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), Asif Ali Zardari has submitted his nomination papers from Nawabshah; the constituency from where he had contested before.

PPPP’s Spokesperson Shazia Atta Marri, while confirming Zardari’s candidature, shared that the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who served as the foreign minister in the previous coalition government, would be contesting from NA 194 Larkana-1 and NA 196 Qambar Shahdadkot-1 as he submitted his nomination papers in both the constituencies on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the incumbent Speaker of the National Assembly and former prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, submitted his nomination papers from Gujar Khan Tehsil of Rawalpindi District (NA-52).

Meanwhile, chief of Jamiat-e-Ulma-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman has submitted his nomination papers from two constituencies; one from his hometown Dera Ismail Khan (NA-44) and another from Balochistan’s Pishin (NA-265) area.

A party statement said that the JUI-F chief, who is also the head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), would be contesting for National Assembly seats from DI Khan and Pishin, saying his nomination papers had been submitted for both.

His son, Maulana Asad Mahmood, who served as the federal minister for communications in the previous coalition government, submitted his nomination papers from Tank (NA-43).

Once considered the king’s party but now bitterly divided, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) will try to retain its stronghold; Gujrat. PML-Q leader Chaudhry Salik Hussain, who served as the federal minister for Board of Investment, shared that his father and PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would not be contesting polls but he himself has submitted nomination papers for three constituencies; NA-64 Gujrat, PP-32 Kunjah Gujrat and PP-26 Pind Dadan Khan, Jhelum-3.

The PML-Q, along with the Muttahida Qaumi Movemnet-Pakistan (MQM-P), had played a key role in the decisive battle when the then opposition alliance had successfully executed a no-confidence motion against the then prime minister Imran Khan in April 2022.

MQM officials shared that MQM-P chief Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui submitted nomination papers from three constituencies of Karachi’s district central; NA-48, NA-49 and NA-250. Reportedly, incumbent Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani is also contesting elections for provincial and national assembly seats from Balochistan. However, the Senate Secretariat said it was unaware of any such development.

Though the stalwarts of the political parties didn’t face any resistance in filing their nomination papers, it was an uphill task for the PTI leaders to do the same. Several candidates managed to file nomination papers only after they got help from the judiciary.

PTI lawyer Abuzar Salman Niazi posted on X that the last three days of his legal practice were challenging, demanding and very different from conventional practice. “Me and my team continuously and unremittingly fought in the Lahore High Court (LHC) for filing of nomination papers,” he stated, adding that they were able to file almost 90% of nominations cases. “Punjab police were hell bent upon preventing the filing of nominations.”

Apart from the nomination papers, the ECP updated its list of the registered political parties soon after the deadline ended for filing of the papers. In the new list, the one noticeable change in the list was that the column of the party chairman for PTI has been left blank.

Previously, Imran Khan was the chairman but in the recently-held intra-party polls, the party elected new chairman. The intra-party polls were held after the ECP made it clear on November 23 that it would to take away the ‘Bat’ symbol back from the PTI if the party didn’t hold polls by December 13.

Though the party complied with the ECP order and elected a new party chairman, some others challenged the results before the ECP and, subsequently, the polls body nullified the intra-party election results and snatched ‘Bat’ symbol from the PTI.

For months, the year 2023 was dubbed as the election year but a touch of irony sees it draw to a close without a single vote being cast in the general elections – due to a delay of a month and eight days for reasons other than any death or calamity.

On November 2, an agreement was reached between President Dr Arif Alvi and the ECP to hold the general elections on February 8, 2024, knowing that it is well beyond the constitutionally mandated 90-day period. The president and the ECP too sat together only after the Supreme Court intervened to hammer out the polls’ date.

According to ECP data, the number of registered voters in Pakistan has increased by 22 million over a period of four years, stating the total number of registered voters in the country in 2018 was nearly 106 million and it rose to around 128 million by July 25 this year.

Those aged 56 or above, who have witnessed what has happened on the country’s political scene over the years, also amount to almost 24 million or 18.9% of the total voter count. Male voters comprise 54% or 68.5 million, while the number of female voters increased from 46.7 million in 2018 to 58.5 million in 2023.

As opposed to the previous occasions, youth would be playing a crucial role in the upcoming general elections as age-wise analysis of the ECP data shows that youth aged between 18 and 35 is at around 57.1 million, making up 45% of those who are eligible to vote. The same percentage for the 2018 elections was 43.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the PPP and the PML-N released the lists of their members for the reserved seats for women and minorities in the National Assembly. The PPP’s list of minority members included Ramesh Lal, Naveed Aamir Jeeva, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Lal Chand Ukrani, Imran Afique Athwal, Naseeb Chand, Jaffar George, Basroo Jee, Adven Masih and Beari Lal.

Its member list for the reserved seats for women included Shazia Marri, Nafeesa Shah, Shagufta Jumani, Shahida Rehmani, Shehla Raza, Mehtab Akbar Rashidi, Musarrat Rafique Mahesar, Mehreen Razaque Bhutto, Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, Naz Baloch, Sehar Kamran Mudassir, Sharmila Sabehah Farooqi and Shazia Nizamani.

The PML-N’s list for reserved seats for women included Tahira Aurangzeb, Shaista Pervaiz, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Nuzhat Sadiq, Musarrat Asif Khawaja, Seema Jillani, Shaza Khawaja, Romina Khursheed Alam, Wajeeha Qamar, Zeb Jaffar, Kiran Dar, Anusha Rahman Khan, Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Saba Sadiq, Farah Naz Akbar, Shahnaz Saleem, Muneeba Iqbal, Iffat Naeem and Tamkeen Akhtar Niazi.