Upcoming polls: PTI announces candidates for K-P, FATA, Balochistan

MQM, PML-F’s 10-party bloc field candidates for Sindh.

KARACHI:

Announcing names for its candidates for National and provincial assembly seats in Karachi, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said on Thursday that if free and fair elections are held, MQM will lose its mandate.

“If transparent elections are held in a peaceful environment then we can give tough competition to MQM and it would lose its mandate,” the party’s senior leader Dr Arif Alvi said at a press conference.

Dr Alvi will be contesting elections from NA-250.

PTI released names of candidates who would be contesting the elections from different constituencies of Karachi.

The party revealed 18 candidates for the city’s total 20 national assembly seats.

PTI candidates for Balochistan

The party is set to field Muhammad Qasim Khan Suri for NA-259 (Quetta), Nawab Khan for NA-261 and Akhtar Mandokhel for NA-264.

FATA, Islamabad

For the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, PTI will field Dawood Shah for NA-36, Shahid Khan for NA-38, Dost Muhammad Khan for NA-42, Javed Hashmi for NA-48 and Chaudhry Ilyas for NA-49.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

PTI has also allotted party tickets for candidates in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi will run for NA-1, NA-5 will be contested by Pervez Khan Khattak and Anwar Haq Dad will run for NA-12.

MQM informally fields candidates for Sindh

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) informally allotted National and provincial Assembly tickets to its candidates on Thursday. The party said they will make a formal announcement on April 20.

20 MQM candidates for National and 42 for provincial assembly seats will contest the May 11 elections.

Out of all National and provincial Assembly seats, the party has only allotted one seat to a woman candidate to contest general election – Khushbakht Shujaat for NA-250.

However, many candidates of the party who were members in the outgoing provincial Sindh Assembly will continue for yet another term. These include Faisal Sabzwari and Dr Sagheer Ahmed among others.

PML-F and the 10-party bloc

After much deliberation, the ten-party alliance led by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) chief Pir Pagara also allotted seats to its candidates.

According to the list issued from PML-F head office, out of a total 61 National Assembly and 130 provincial assembly seats in Sindh, 47 candidates will contest from national assembly (NA) and 90 provincial assembly elections.

Notable candidates from the alliance include PML-N’s Raheela Magsi for NA 233 and Illahi Bux Soomro for NA 208. PML-N’s Marvi Memon will contest NA-237 and the party’s President in Sindh Pir Sadaruddin Rashdi for NA 216.

According to spokesman for Raja House (residence of Pir Pagara), PML-F will have major share in the electoral alliance as 13 candidate of the party will contest on National and 32 on provincial assembly seats.

PML N has been given eight National and 15 provincial assembly seats. Jamaat-e Islami has been allotted 10 National and 13 provincial Assembly. JUI-F will contest six national and nine provincial assembly seats. National Peoples Party has been given one National and six provincial assembly seats. Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party has been allotted one National and provincial Assembly seat each. Similarly, Sindh United Party has been allotted two National and three provincial Assembly seats.

Awami Tahreek has been allotted three National and four provincial Assembly seats.

In Karachi JI will have a significant share, as the alliance will support JI’s 9 National and 10 provincial Assembly candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2013.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, Marvi Memon was erroneously mentioned as a PML-F member. The error has been fixed.