One-tribe show: 11, including 8 Abbasis, file nomination papers for PK-45

Parties contesting include PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, PPP-S and JI.

ABBOTABAD: At least 11 candidates filed nomination papers on Tuesday for the by-election in PK-45, Abbottabad. There is not a single female candidate among the 11, eight of whom belong to the same Abbasi tribe of Bakote, Abbottabad.

According to the list finalised and pasted outside the office of the returning officer, civil judge and judicial magistrate Sabir Mehmood Durrani, there are 11 people who have confirmed their candidature by filing their nomination papers by the last day fixed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The candidates include: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Shamoon Yar Khan, former MPA and son of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Governor Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi, and his covering candidate Fareed Abbasi; Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Ali Asghar Khan and his covering candidate Muhammad Nazir Abbasi; Jamaat-e-Islami’s Muhammad Saeed Abbasi and his covering candidate Muhammad Amin; Pakistan Peoples Party’s Manzoor Mumtaz Abbasi; Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto’s Jehanzeb Abbasi and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Zulfiqar Ali Abbasi and his covering candidate Muhammad Akram Abbasi. Muhammad Anwar Abbasi has filed his papers as an independent candidate.

The seat fell vacant when PML-N’s elected MPA from PK-45 Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi was elevated to the office of K-P governor last month.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2014.