ISLAMABAD - Old and new faces are once again flexing their muscles to land in the arena in the by-elections on one of the Federal Capital’s National Assembly seats, NA-48, which was vacated by Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf central leader Makhdoom Javid Hashmi.
Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf has fielded Umar Asad, a sheet anchor in party’s think tank, in by-polls from the slot while Jamaat-I-Islam and Pakistan People’s Party have repeated the old faces Mian Aslam and Faisal Sakhi Butt, both of them had lost elections to PTI Makhdoom Javid Hashmi who had also won NA seat from his home town Multan and preferred to retain Multan seat. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was in a state of indecision and so far could not have finalised the candidate from almost around couple of dozen aspirants of party ticket from this constituency, including former MNA from the area Anjum Aqeel Khan, who was runner’s up in the general elections.
However, out of a long list of the aspirants, who wanted to land in the by-polls arena with PML-N ticket Anjum Aqeel Khan, former information secretary of the party Sadiqul Farooq, central party leader Senator Zafar Ali Shah, Ashraf Gujar advocate, Zagham Shah, a close relative of Zafar Ali Shah, and a few more are considered serious candidates and they are all vigorously lobbying for the party ticket. Political analysts are once again seeing a tough contest between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf, which had won the seat with huge margin of 20,000 plus votes.
But some of the political observers said that this time it would be a different ballgame as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) would be at advantage because they have their governments both in Centre and Punjab and voters would likely to tilt more toward them.
But on the other hand Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf would mainly be banking on urban votes, which had forced them to victory in general elections with a margin of 20,000 plus votes and secondly they would be in a position to cash in on the sharp divide in the PML-N ranks as almost around two dozen candidates have applied for the party ticket and the losers in the game could cast negative impact on the election campaign of the party’s candidate in the by-polls.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan had made another smart move by winning back the estranged party leader Fouzia Kasuri in the party’s fold and the massive blow she would be going to cause to the party’s candidate in the by-polls as independent candidate is now stalled.
Sources in the party said that Nawaz Sharif was once again reluctant to award party ticket to Anjum Aqeel Khan, for his implication in the land scam case, currently awaiting Supreme Court of Pakistan’s verdict, but on the other hand the central party leaders strongly supported him for the party ticket, as in their views Anjum Aqeel Khan could only win the seat for the party because his is son of the soil and has very strong roots in the rural areas falling in this constituency.
In the general elections which he had lost to PTI stalwart Makhdoom Javid Hashmi, Anjum Aqeel Khan had taken 20,000 votes lead over PTI from the rural belt but was defeated with a huge margin of around 42,000 from the urban areas of Federal Capital.
His supporters said that in case some other candidate would be given ticket in the by-polls the chances of PML-N to regain this seat would diminish, as he could not hold command on the ruler voters like Anjum, while in the urban localities PML-N could not withstand the PTI candidate.
Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah was another very strong contender for the party ticket while Ashraf Gujar advocate was also using his clout in the party as well as the Gujar Parliamentarians in the party and had organised a couple of very impressive functions to show his strength. Some of the party leaders were considering his as another strong contender of the party ticket. Similarly the services and sacrifices of Siddiqul Farooq for the party could not be ignored while awarding party ticket from this constituency.
Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) has constituted the Election Board of the party which would start taking interviews of the candidates for all the National and Punjab Assembly seats on which by-polls were announced from July 10, however, the final word on picking the candidates for by-elections would be of party president PM Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.