Stakes high in Lakki Marwat’s LG showdown

Rivalries revolve around Saifullah clan and Haji Kabeer family.

LAKKI MARWAT: Pakistani politics largely translates as a power struggle between warring influentials. The trajectory is no different in what seems like an insignificant battleground. As local government polls head closer, Lakki Marwat is geared up for a neck and neck contest between amalgams of rival clans and political parties.

The 2013 general elections witnessed Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) see off the influential Saifullah clan and clinch three provincial and a National Assembly berth. However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reached the finishing line convincingly during by-polls, reshaping the district’s power dynamics yet another time.

Blood relations

The Saifullahs are now all set to pounce back on lost territory and rekindle their rivalry against JUI-F’s protégés, the Haji Kabeer family. An alliance comprising a minimum of six different parties, PTI, Pakistan Peoples Party, the Ideological and Sami factions of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, is poised to regain conceded glory in what seems like an uneven match for Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s men.

They say if you can’t ride two horses at once, you have no business in the circus. The Saifullah family consists of prominent PPP leader Anwar Saifullah Khan and son PPP Senator Usman Saifullah Khan, PML-N’s Salim Saifullah Khan and PTI’s Javed Saifullah Khan. As the clan members attempt to trace political loyalties through blood relations, an alliance is their only hope for a comeback on the Lakki Marwat scene.

Despite finding common ground against a common enemy, alliance members have failed at choosing a common election symbol. With candidates pitted in all 33 union councils of Lakki Marwat, PTI and JI have chosen to test their luck with their respective party symbols while the remaining parties will tag along the PPP’s arrow.

Tripartite coalition

Despite signing a truce with JUI-F in a province-wide alliance, the Awami National Party looks in no mood to throw its weight behind a troubled ally in Lakki Marwat. While both parties have resigned to a face-off, the Qaumi Watan Party is languishing as most of its potential candidates chose to contest independently.

On the flipside, PTI under the leadership of MNA Col (retd) Amirullah Khan is still busy war-gaming the showdown from the sidelines. Provincial lawmakers Malik Munawar Khan, Malik Noor Salim Khan and Hayat Khan are leading the Haji Kabeer line as tough times await JUI-F on May 30.

On the whole, family feuds, provincial and district-level alliances and rivalries are all enmeshed in the district. What can be said with certainty is that Lakki Marwat’s poll results certainly mean a lot to the tradition of family politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2015.