PESHAWAR: According to The News on Wednesday, major political parties have once again given tickets to members of their close relatives and powerful families to run in the forthcoming general elections, demonstrating the continued dominance of family politics in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
With the exception of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), all of the nation’s major political parties have nominated candidates who are members of powerful families or the offspring of the party’s leadership.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP), and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) are among the parties.
Five candidates will compete for both the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and the National Assembly, according to the JUI-F’s final list that was made available to the media.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the head of the JUI-F Central, is going to run in Dera Ismail Khan for NA-44. In Tank, his son Maulana Asad Rehman, a former federal minister as too, is running for NA-43. Another son of the JUI-F chief, Maulana Asajad Rehman, is running for NA-41 in Lakki Marwat.
DI Khan’s two younger brothers, Maulana Lutfur Rehman and Maulana Ubaidur Rehman, the leader of the JUI-F, will run for seats in the provincial parliament.
In the Bannu district, tickets for two KP Assembly seats were given to the former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani. Meanwhile, his son, Zahid Akram Durrani, who was previously the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, will run for office in the same district.
In the same way, the JUI-F candidates for PK-87 and PK-88 in the Nowshera district are former provincial minister Liaqat Khattak, brother of PTI-P Chairman Pervez Khattak, and his son, Ahad Khattak.
In the meantime, Khattak is running for two provincial assembly seats and one NA seat in his hometown of Nowshera. Ibrahim and Ismail Khattak, his two sons, are the party’s nominees for Nowshera’s PK-85 and PK-86 seats.
On the party ticket, Dr. Imran Khattak, the PTI-P chief’s nephew and son-in-law, will run in Nowshera for PK-89 and NA-33.
However, Omar Ayub Khan, the PTI’s central general secretary, was given tickets to run for the Haripur National Assembly seat, while his close relatives Arshad and Akbar Ayub will compete for PK-47 .
In a similar vein, Ali Amin Gandapur, a former provincial minister and the provincial president of the PTI, is running for two provincial assembly seats and one National Assembly seat in DI Khan. From the same district, his brother Faisal Amin Gandapur is running for the provincial assembly seat.
Asad Qaisar, the former speaker of the National Assembly, and his brother Aqibullah Khan, the candidate for PK-50 in Swabi, have also been given tickets by the former ruling party. In the same district, Faisal Khan Tarakai is the party’s candidate for PK-52 in Swabi, while former provincial minister Shahram Khan Tarakai will run for NA-20 in Swabi on the PTI ticket.
Amir Muqam Khan, the provincial president of the PML-N, has been given tickets to run in two National Assembly seats and one KP Assembly seat in Shangla and Swat. Meanwhile, his brother Dr. Ibad will run on the PML-N ticket for a provincial assembly seat in Shangla.
Ikhtiyar Wali Khan, the PML-N’s provincial spokesperson, will run for one National Assembly seat in Nowshera (NA-33 and PK-88), while his brother Liaqat Wali is the party’s nominee for PK-85 in the same city.
Former MNA Shah Jee Gul Afridi of the Khyber district has been given a ticket by the PML-N to run for the National legislature, while his son and nephew, Bilawal and Shafiq Afridi, will run for two seats in the provincial legislature.
Meanwhile, Arbab Alamgir Khan, the son of the former federal minister, has been nominated by the PPP for the NA reserved women’s seat, and Arbab Zarak Khan, the party’s candidate for PK-80 in Peshawar, has been given a ticket.
Both his nephew Razaullah Khan and former KP Assembly speaker Kiramatullah Chagharmati will run for office in Peshawar on the PPP platform.
Usman Khan Tarakai and Biland Khan Tarakai in the Swabi district have been given National Assembly and Provincial Assembly tickets by the PPP. With PTI candidates Shahram Tarakzai and Faisal Khan Tarakai, the Tarakai family will be up against fierce competition in Swabi.
In a same vein, Ahmad Karim Kundi of the PPP received a ticket for PK-112 in the DI Khan district, while Faisal Karim Kundi of the NA received one for the NA seat. In the same district, Ihsan and Qaisar Miankhel are the PPP candidates for the provincial assembly.
Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, the central leader of the ANP and a former federal minister, has been given a ticket to run in NA-32 in Peshawar. Samar Haroon Bilour, a former MPA and Haroon Bilour’s widow, will also run on the ANP ticket against PK-83.
QWP Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao is a candidate for the National Assembly seat NA-24 in Charsadda, while his son, former provincial senior minister Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, is running for seats in the KP Assembly.
