PESHAWAR: In the approaching general elections on February 8, a number of female lawmakers are running for the national and provincial assembly seats in the provincial capital, The News reported on Monday.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto ran in the 1990 provincial capital elections for NA-1 Peshawar, which primarily included the current NA-32) but was defeated by Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Ghulam Ahmad Bilour. The only women to win a general seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Ghazala Habib Tanoli, and Samar Haroon Bilour.
The first woman from KP to win a general seat in the National Assembly was Begum Nasim Wali Khan, the late leader of the ANP, who was then NA-4 Peshawar.
in the surveys conducted in 1977. She later continued to lead the opposition in the provincial assembly.
The only female KP candidate to win both NA and PA general seats was Begum Nasim.
Begum Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was elected as an MNA from Chitral in the 1988 general elections. She received 32,819 votes, more than her opponent Shahzada Muhiuddin of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, who received 23,405 votes. Later, she gave up her seat, and the PPP’s Ghafoor Shah was elected as the area’s MNA.
In 2002, Ghazala Habib Tanoli, a different lady, ran for a general seat and won with more than 11,900 votes to become an MPA from Mansehra.
In the 2018 general elections, Samar Haroon Bilour was chosen as the MPA from Peshawar, sixteen years later.
Numerous other women from other sections of KP have before attempted and failed to win a general seat in NA or PA.
Kulsum Begum The first female federal minister of Pakistan was Saifullah Khan of KP, who was appointed to the NA on a special seat reserved for women.
Shandana Gulzar, a former member of the National Assembly serving on a seat designated for women, is one of the front-runners for the NA-30 National Assembly seat in the next elections.
In 2013, her father was elected to the local assembly as a member of parliament for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Nasir Musazai emerged victorious on the PTI ticket in 2018.
.. After leaving the PTI last year, Nasir is running this time as a candidate for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
Shandana is the PTI’s nominee in the general elections, running against Raees Khan of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), Kashif Azam of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Misbahuddin of PPP, Arbab Zain Umar of ANP, and Nasir Musazai of JUI-F.
Following the PTI’s loss of the bat emblem right before the polls, she is running as an independent.
Sobia Shahid, a female contender from PML-N, is displaying her strength for NA-31. She is up against Pir Haroon Shah of the ANP, Saeed Jan of the JUI-F, Arbab Sher Ali of the PTI, and Arbab Alamgir Khalil of the PPP. She has continued to hold an MPA position on a female-only bench.
In 2013, PTI candidate Hamidul Haq was elected as an MNA in the district; in 2018, PTI candidate Arbab Sher Ali won the seat. The area’s 2008 winner was PPP’s Arbab Alamgir.
Former MPA Samar Haroon Bilour of inner Peshawar, PK-83, has been fielded by the ANP for the provincial assembly seat. She is up against Syed Zahir Ali Shah, a former provincial minister for the PPP, Muhammad Umar of JUIF, Meena Khan Afridi, a PTI nominee, and Khalid Gul of JI.
After her husband Haroon Bilour died in a suicide attack while the area was running for the 2018 general elections, Samar was given a ticket by the ANP and went on to be elected as an MPA.
PK-3 Peshawar was the home of Samar’s father-in-law, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, an MPA from this area who was killed in a suicide assault in Qissa Khwani in 2012.
While one female contender filed papers for NA-29 Peshawar-II, no women have filed for NA-28 Peshawar-1. Two female candidates submitted their papers for Peshawar’s NA-30, NA-31, and NA-32 seats.
Numerous women from various province districts have submitted applications on behalf of several political parties for general seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
Dr. Savera Parkash, a Hindu woman, gained international attention when she announced her intention to run for the PK-25 provincial assembly seat from the Buner area. The PPP has issued her with a ticket.
