Peshawar district: ECP issues final list of candidates

200 approved for 11 provincial assembly seats, 65 for National Assembly.

PESHAWAR:

The final list of candidates for both national and provincial assembly seats in Peshawar district was issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday.

A total of 200 candidates will contest the 11 provincial assembly seats, while 65 have been fielded on the four National Assembly seats. The candidates’ election symbols have also been finalised.

National Assembly

For NA-1 (Peshawar-I), 18 candidates are standing against each other.  Here the main battle will be between the Awami National Party’s (ANP) senior politician and former railways minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.



Pakistan People Party’s (PPP) Zulfiqar Afghani and Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Muhammad Afzal Panyala are also contesting from this seat.

In NA-2 (Peshawar-II), 17 candidates will participate, but the tougher contenders are the Arbabs-Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians’ (PPP) member and former federal minister Arbab Alamgir Khan and ANP’s Arbab Najeebullah Khan. Alamgir had won the seat in the 2008 elections.

In NA-2, PML-N has given a ticket to Abdul Bari, PTI to Hamidul Haq and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) to Muhammad Saeed Jan.

For NA-3 (Peshawar-III), a total of 17 candidates are contesting, including PML-N central leader Engineer Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and JUI-F’s Ghulam Ali. PPP’s potential candidate Noor Alam Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Advocate Israrullah and ANP’s Inamullah Khan will also fight from this constituency.

Senior politician, Hashim Baber who quit the ANP and joined the PTI will contest elections as an independent candidate from NA-3.

For NA-4, out of the 13, the popular contestants are former provincial minister for agriculture Arbab Ayub Jan of ANP, Sabir Hussain Awan of JI, Nasir Mussazai of PML-N and Maulana Abdul Malik of JUI-F.

From this constituency, the PPP and PTI have given their tickets to relatively unknown candidates, Misbahuddin and Gulzar Khan, respectively.

Provincial assembly

Twenty-seven people are running for the PK-1 slot of the assembly with JI’s Advocate Bakhrullah, ANP’s Ghazanfar Bilour and independent candidate Advocate Muhammad Akbar Khan among the prominent names.

In PK-2, a total of 23 candidates will contest elections, including former provincial minister Syed Zahir Ali.

From PK-3, 26 candidates are in the running along with JUI-F’s Alhaj Abdul Jalil Jan and ANP’s Haroon Bashir Bilour, who is the son of slain ANP minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour. In PK-4, 18 candidates were allowed to contest, including former provincial sports minister Syed Aqil Shah.

In PK-5, 27 are in the field including ANP’s Arbab Tahir Khan Khalil, while in PK-6, a total of 17 potential candidates will participate.

From PK-7, the nominations of 17 candidates have been approved. PPP’s Kiramatullah Chagarmatti is contesting from this area.

From PK-8, eight candidates have been allowed to stand in the election. JUI-F’s former provincial minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, PPP’s Malik Tehmash Khan and independent candidate Arbab Nazir Ahmad Khan are among the eight.

From PK-9, 15 candidates will contest elections., including PPP’s Iftikhar Khan Jhagra.  Meanwhile in PK-10, seven candidates are contesting, including ANP’s Khushdil Khan.

From PK-11, a total of 15 candidates have been approved but ANP’s Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, JUI-F’s Khalid Waqar Chamkani and PML-N’s Intikhab Chamkani are the more popular contenders.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2013.