PESHAWAR: According to a Friday story in The News, six former chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and members of their families are running for the province’s national and provincial assembly seats.
Akram Khan Durrani, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Pervez Khattak, and Mahmood Khan are among the former chief ministers.
In a similar vein, thirteen scions—including the sons and grandsons of the outgoing CMs—will run in the province’s elections on February 8.
Four of KP’s former CEOs have changed their political affiliation. Notably, after winning election to the provincial parliament, Akram Khan Durrani and Ameer Haider Khan Hoti remained members of the parties from which they were elected.
Sherpao, Aftab Ahmad Khan
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, the central chairman of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), is running for NA-24 in Charsadda on the party’s platform. In the 2018 elections, he was defeated by a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate running for the same seat.
On a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) platform, he won seats in the national and provincial assemblies for Peshawar and Charsadda in 1988. He subsequently chose to run for a provincial assembly seat and was appointed chief minister of the province.
After a vote of no confidence against the then-prime minister, Pir Sabir Shah, in the then-NWFP Assembly, he was elected chief minister once more in 1993. Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, his son and the QWP’s regional president,
will run from Charsadda for a seat in the provincial assembly.
In the 2018 general elections, Sikandar, a former senior minister for the province, was defeated by the PTI candidate despite having been elected to the provincial parliament three times, just like his father.
Ahmad Khan Sardar Mehtab
Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, an independent from Abbottabad who has previously held the positions of governor and chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will run for office.
Mehtab fell out with his party leadership in 2023 after winning seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the National Assembly, and the Senate of Pakistan on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz platform. From 1997 to 1999, he continued to serve as the chief minister of the former NWFP. From 2014 to 2016, he was the governor of KP.
Durrani, Akram Khan
Akram Khan Durrani, the former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal minister, has been given tickets for two provincial assembly seats in the Bannu area.
His son Zahid Akram Durrani, a former deputy speaker of the National Assembly, is running for a Bannu National Assembly seat on behalf of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
After the then-Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) won the majority of seats in the 2002 general elections, Akram was chosen to serve as the province’s chief minister. He’s been connected to JUI-F for a while.
Hoti, Ameer Haider Khan
Ameer Haider Khan Hoti was the ANP’s nominee in the 2008 general elections, which saw the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) win the majority of seats and create a coalition government in the province.
After making it to the National Assembly in the elections of 2013 and 2018, Hoti has now been given tickets by the party for one constituency in the National Assembly and one in the Provincial Assembly in Mardan for the general elections of 2024.
Khattak Pervez
Following the violent protests on May 9, former chief minister Pervez Khattak founded his faction of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He would run on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarian (PTI-P) ticket for NA-33, Nowshera, as well as two provincial assembly seats, PK-87 and PK-88, Nowshera.
On a PTI platform, he won one National Assembly member and one province assembly seat in the 2018 general elections. However, he later gave up the provincial assembly seat to accept a federal minister position in the Imran Khan-led central government.
His son-in-law Dr. Imran Khattak, an ex-MNA, is the party candidate for NA-34, Nowshera, and PK-89, Nowshera. His two sons, Ibrahim Khattak, a former MPA as well, and Ismael Khattak, will run for provincial assembly seats in Nowshera on the PTIP ticket. From 2013 to 2018, Pervez Khattak led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as its chief minister.
Mahmood Khan
Mahmood Khan, another former chief minister, left his former party, the PTI, and is currently the central vice-chairman of the PTI-P. In the next elections, he will run in one constituency for the National Assembly and one for the Provincial Assembly in Swat.
Following the 2018 general elections, the PTI became the government in KP for the second time in the country’s history.
But in 2022, Mahmood resigned as chief minister and disbanded the provincial legislature at the request of his central leadership.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s family, who were the sons and grandsons of former chief ministers of the then-NEWFP, is highly involved in electoral politics.
The JUIF is fielding candidates for the National Assembly and provincial assembly constituencies in Dera Ismael Khan, including Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Ubaid-ur-Rehman, and Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman, the sons of the late Maulana Mufti Mehmood, the former chief minister. In the 2024 elections, Maulana Asaad Mehmood, a former federal minister, and Maulana Asjad Mehmood, the two grandsons of Mufti Mehmood, will run for the National Assembly from the Tank and Lakki Marwat districts.
Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil, the son of former chief minister Arbab Jehangir Khan, is running on the Pakistan People’s Party ticket for the Peshawar National Assembly seat. Arbab Zarak Khan, his son, is the PPP’s nominee for the Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat. Asma Alamgir, his spouse and a former MNA, has also been shortlisted for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s women-reserved National Assembly seats. Chief Minister Arbab Alamgir had led the province following non-party elections in 1985.
A different scion (grandson) of the late chief minister Aghaaz Gandapur, who was elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on the PTI ticket, would run on the JUIF ticket from Dera Ismail Khan. In the PPP-led administration, Sardar Inayatullah Gandapur held the position of chief minister.Both of his sons, Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur and Ikramullah Gandapur, were victims of terrorism in their homeland of Dera Ismail Khan in Kulachi. They have both been elected to the provincial legislature multiple times.
