ISLAMABAD: Two National Assembly seats, which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had won in the 2013 general elections, are at stake as a fierce contest is imminent in the by-polls in a week’s time.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has mainly challenged the PML-N in these areas while the third important political force, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), stays on the sidelines and is still to come out of the trauma it faced in 2013.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan has also contributed to the campaign of his nominees while no senior PML-N leader has visited any of the two constituencies to extend a helping hand to its contestants. He had addressed public rallies in Multan and Wazirabad.
The two sitting lawmakers were unseated by the Supreme Court in appeals, filed against the decisions of the election tribunals. Justice (R) Iftikhar Cheema was ousted from NA-101 Wazirabad (Gujranwala) for committing a mistake in declaration of assets, but was allowed to contest the by-election as he was not disqualified.
However, Dewan Ashiq Hussain Bokhari was disqualified from NA-153 Multan for possessing a fake educational degree and barred to take part in the electoral politics. The polling will be held on Thursday (March 17) for NA-153 and on March 22 for NA-101.
The fight in Wazirabad is likely to be a cliff-hanger because of the ground situation. Although senior PTI leader Ahmed Mehmood Qureshi is struggling hard to win NA-153 as it falls in his home district, the competition is unexpected to be close.
The principal contest in NA-153 will be between PML-N’s Qasim Noon and PTI’s Ghulam Abbas Khakhi. The PPP has also fielded its candidate, Malik Akram Kinhon. In 2013 when the PPP’s electoral prospects were very low, which have not so far brightened much, its cardholder, Qasim Noon, had performed very well and was the runner-up. He had clinched 90,179 votes, just 4,234 ballots short of those of the winner, Ashiq Bokhari, who had obtained 94,413 votes.
PTI candidate Syed Khurshid Ahmed had stood third, far away from the winner and the runner-up, by getting just 18,155 ballots. Sometime back Qasim Noon abandoned the PPP to join the PML-N, which has sponsored him in the by-election. He has an impressive personal vote bank, a fact that was reflected in the 2013 polls when he had bagged a massive number of ballots. Given the PPP’s poor standing at the time, it is absolutely clear that it had not added any significant number of votes to his tally.
Tough scramble looms large on the horizon of NA-101 for different factors. The 2013 results may throw some idea at the likely outcome this time as well. The victor, Iftikhar Cheema, had then obtained 99,924 votes as against his rival, Ahmad Chattha, son of Hamid Nasir Chattha, who had fought on the ticket of the PML-Junejo, now extinct, and secured 60,795 votes. Thus, he had lost with a huge margin of 39,129 ballots.
At the time, PTI’s Shahnawaz Cheema had bagged only 11,592 votes and had stood at the fourth position. Even the PML-Q candidate, Sajid Chattha, a retired bureaucrat, had performed better than him by pocketing 13,886 votes.
Shahnawaz Cheema recently joined the PML-N after he was denied the PTI sponsorship in the by-poll. The PTI has fielded Ahmed Chattha after the son and father jumped on its bandwagon a few weeks back. This is the first time that Hamid Nasir Chattha has associated himself with a non-League with the sole objective of winning the elections. However, it is an open question how far the PTI will help him get this seat. No doubt, Hamid Nasir prides himself on a large number of votes because of his personal qualities.
Although the PML-N has stayed away from Iftikhar Cheema’s campaign, it has taken some solid steps to buoy up his canvassing drive. One of its influential members of the Punjab Assembly from the area, who has traditionally been at odds with Iftikhar Cheema, has been given strict instructions to cooperate with him. As a result, the two have patched up and are campaigning together. Additionally, Shahnawaz Cheema, a relative of former Punjab chief secretary and present Chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission Navid Akram Cheema, is also helping the retired judge.
Although local governments are yet to come in place and become functional, its members are making their contributions in the electioneering. The PML-N had secured a clear edge over its rivals in the local elections.
Obviously, the victory of the PML-N in the by-election will result in retention of its seats in addition to tightening its grip in the areas. On the other hand, the triumph of the PTI candidates will boost up its morale which has not been very high since long for various reasons.