PESHAWAR: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a conglomerate of five religious parties suffered a humiliating defeat in the general election on both the national and provincial assembly constituencies with all its top leaders biting the dust.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who is the head of the MMA as well as central chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), failed to win any of the two constituencies he was vying for in his native district Dera Ismail Khan.
On NA-38, he suffered defeat by a huge margin of 34,879 ballots at the hands of Ali Amin Gandapur of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The Maulana could bag 45,357 votes only against the 80,236 of Ali Amin Gandapur.
On NA-39 where the lowest number of votes had been polled, Maulana Fazlur Rahman was defeated by Mohammad Yaqub Shaikh of the PTI. The former could get 4,076 votes only while the latter obtained 5,511 votes.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) central chief and vice-president of the MMA, Sirajul Haq suffered defeat in his native Dir Lower district. He, too, was defeated by the PTI candidate Mohammad Bashir Khan. This was also a big margin defeat as the JI head could get 46,040 votes only while his rival Mohammad Bashir Khan secured 63,017 ballots.
Former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani, provincial president of the alliance Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, Haji Ghulam Ali, and others also faced humiliating defeats.
The alliance could not secure even a single seat in the national and provincial assembly in majority of the districts.
Chitral is the only district where the alliance’s candidates gave hundred percent result. The district has only one seat each in the national and provincial assemblies - NA-1 and PK-1.
On NA-1, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali emerged victorious with 48,616 votes. He was followed by Abdul Latif of the PTI with 38,481 votes.
In Swat, the alliance failed to win any of the three national and nine provincial assembly seats.
In Upper Dir, which has been a stronghold of the JI, only Inayatullah Khan, the former senior minister could retain his seat PK-12 out of the three provincial assembly constituencies.
Inayatullah secured 27,413 votes followed by Naveed Anjum of the PTI with 19,258 votes. The remaining two constituencies were won by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidates.
The lone National Assembly seat NA-5 in Upper Dir could not be decided till filing of this report. Sahibzada Tariqullah of the MMA and his cousin Sahibzada Sibghatullah, fielded by the PTI, are in this close contest.
Earlier, there were reports about the victory of Sibghatullah. However, the reports changed in favour of Tariqullah later.
The Election Commission, however, could not declare the result on this seat until now.
In Lower Dir, another stronghold of the JI, the alliance failed badly as none of its candidates could make it to the national or provincial assembly on the two National Assembly and five provincial assembly seats.
In Malakand district, the situation was the same. The lone National Assembly and two provincial seats were won by the PTI.
In Buner and Shangla none of the candidates of the alliance could secure any victory.
In Kohistan, the alliance’s candidate Afareen Khan won a provincial assembly seat. However, his final result has not been declared yet.
In Battagram, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur, too the alliance could not win even a single seat.
In the central districts including Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar too the alliance failed miserably.
In the southern districts, the MMA managed to win a few seats of national and provincial assembly.
On NA 36, Lakki Marwat the alliance’s candidate Mohammad Anwar Khan carried the day with 91,065 ballots against the 80,236 of PTI’s Ashfaq Ahmad.
On NA-37 Tank, Asad Mahmood, son of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, has reportedly won, but the result hasn’t been officially declared.
For the provincial assembly, Shahdad Khan of the alliance emerged victorious on PK-81, Kohat with 17,498 votes against the 17,323 of PTI’s Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi.
Akram Khan Durrani, who lost his National Assembly seat to the PTI chairman Imran Khan, won PK-90 Bannu by a low margin, securing 32,801 ballots against the 32,628 of Malik Adnan Khan of the PTI.
On PK-93 Lakki-1, Anwar Hayat Khan of the MMA secured 17,114 ballots against the 16,342 of his rival Tariq Saeed of the PTI and was declared the winner.
On PK-94 Lakki-2, Mahmood Ahmad of the MMA secured victory with 27,651 ballots. His rival Ghulam Qadir of PTI got 15,452 votes.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s younger brother Maulana Lutfur Rahman also won his seat PK-98 Dera Ismail Khan. He got 19,808 ballots and his rival Fakhrullah Khan, an independent candiate, secured 18,842 votes.
