JUI-F inducted former ANP minister Mian Nisar Gul Kakakhel. PHOTO: pakp.gov.pk
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) seems to be making up for the loss of one national assembly and two provincial assembly seats from Karak by inducting former Awami National Party (ANP) minister Mian Nisar Gul Kakakhel in what is most likely a damage-control exercise.
Kakakhel joined JUI-F on Saturday in Islamabad, following a meeting with party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The party’s provincial spokesperson Haji Jalil Jan confirmed Kakakhel has joined JUI-F, adding it was unconditional.
Interestingly, this union seems to be an attempt by both JUI-F and Kakakhel to come to terms with their loss to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the May 11 general elections. JUI-F lost three of its seats while Kakakhel lost his native seat.
JUI-F had first issued a ticket for PK-41 to Malik Qasim Khattak, who won this seat back in 2008.
However, the party later withdrew its ticket for Qasim, prompting him to run as an independent candidate as he had resigned from ANP in February this year.
Qasim defeated JUI-F’s candidate Ayub Khattak and later joined PTI, which made him the adviser to chief minister on prisons – a position held by Kakakhel in the previous government. At the same time, Kakakhel also lost from PK-41, his hometown district seat, to a PTI youngster Gul Sahib Khan Khattak.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2013.
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