ISLAMABAD: After 40 years of active participation in politics, two former federal ministers, Ch Nisar Ali Khan and Ghulam Sarwar Khan, were eliminated from the political arena of NA-54 in the 2024 elections.
It was the first time in four decades that these two former ministers did not finish first or second in the previous ten elections since 1985. Voters rejected established candidates and chose new faces for both National Assembly and provincial assembly seats.
For the first time, voters elected all fresh faces to the National Assembly (NA-54), as well as two provincial assembly seats (PP-12 and PP-13). Constituents voted against former federal ministers.
In 1985, Ch Nisar and Ghulam were elected MNA and MPA for the first time in non-party elections from Taxila and Wah Cantt constituencies respectively. Then they parted ways and joined different political parties. Since 1985, both have been elected to various terms. Ch Nisar remained associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but he chose to leave the party and run as an independent candidate for the NA seat in the 2018 election, which he lost.
Ghulam originally joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), where he earned a provincial assembly seat and later became provincial minister during the PPP-led administration in Punjab. When Musharraf took control and founded the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), he joined the party after winning the 2002 elections as an independent candidate.
He lost the 2008 elections. He then joined the PTI, winning two seats in the 2018 elections. In the 2024 elections, he ran for the Istehkam-e-Pakistan (IPP), but lost.
Barrister Aqeel Malik, who was denied a PML-N ticket in NA-54 due to a seat adjustment with the IPP after the ticket was awarded to Ghulam, received 85,912 votes, according to Form-47 provided by the returning officer.
Azra Masood, the mother of Malik Taimur Masood, a former provincial minister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Punjab, received 73,694 votes without conducting a complete political campaign. PTI voters rallied around Azra in NA-54 and Saad Khan in Taxila’s provincial assembly seat of PP-12, respectively. The newly elected MNA in NA-54.
Azra, an independent candidate associated with the PTI, said in a video message that she obtained Form 45 from all polling stations, indicating that she had received a majority of 50,000 to 60,000 votes, and that the returning officer was not giving over the final results. She claimed she will resist the unwarranted changes imposed as a result of NA-54.
Mohsin Ayub of the PML-N won 41,138 votes in PP-12, his first time running for the provincial legislature. Saad, an independent candidate connected with the PTI, came in second place with 35,108 votes.
Ammar Siddique Khan, Ghulam’s nephew, received 12,401 votes in the PP-12 election for the IPP seat. Zeeshan Siddique Butt is an independent candidate.
In PP-13, Fahd Masood, an independent candidate and brother of former provincial minister Taimur Masood, won with the help of PTI supporters. He won the provincial assembly seat for the first time. The new candidates won all three seats, and the voters rejected all of the old faces.
