Cantt polls: Over 24 candidates vie for Risalpur’s three wards

PTI and ANP go neck-and-neck, PPP without candidates.

RISALPUR: Candidature processes have neared completion as over 24 aspirants are vying for Risalpur’s three wards in the cantonment polls scheduled for April 25. The elections will be conducted simultaneously in the country’s 44 cantonments.

Most of Risalpur’s candidates are contesting the polls in an independent capacity while some are affiliated with political parties.

Considered Pakistan Peoples Party’s stronghold at one time, Risalpur will see no candidates from the party. However, both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Awami National Party have pitted candidates in these polls.

Ward-I is being contested by PTI’s Abid Mashwani, ANP’s Haji Tariq Iqbal, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Asghar Khan and a host of independent candidates. Iqbal’s father has earlier served as a ward councillor for 20 years. Ward-II will see competition between only three aspirants – PTI’s Zahir Shah, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Abu Momin and an independent candidate Syed Nadeem Shah.

Ward-III will see 11 candidates go head-to-head, with most of the competition between PTI’s Aurangzeb and National Youth Organisation’s Mohammad Aslam.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2015.