Elections 2024: ANP fields 11 women for general seats

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) is the only political party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, so far, that has awarded tickets to women candidates for contesting the Feb 8 general elections on the general seats.

The party has almost finalised and announced candidates for the National Assembly and provincial assembly seats. They include six women candidates for one National Assembly and five provincial assembly seats.

According to the list shared with the media on Tuesday, the ANP has nominated Khadija Bibi for NA-1 Chitral. She has already contested elections on the party ticket for the tehsil nazim slot.

ANP spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour said Khadija Bibi had ended as a runner-up by obtaining about 8,500 votes in the last local government polls in Chitral.

Among the other female nominees, Samar Haroon Bilour and Shagufta Malik are those who were elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in the past on the general seats and women reserved seats, respectively.

Widow of Haroon Ahmad Bilour and daughter-in-law of late Bashir Ahmad Bilour, Samar was elected to the last Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on the general seat in the by-polls after her husband lost life in a suicide bombing during the election campaign in Peshawar and the polling was postponed on the seat. Bashir Bilour was also martyred in a terror act on December 22, 2012.

Now she will contest on the ANP ticket for PK-83 Peshawar in the general elections.

Shagufta Malik, also ANP provincial vice-president, was elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly twice on the ANP reserved seat. She will contest for PK-73 Peshawar on the general seat.

The ANP has nominated Dr Shaheen Zameer for PK-40 Mansehra, Shehnaz Raja for PK-42 Abbottabad and Iram Fatima for PK-47 Haripur for the general elections.

According to a political analyst, Chitral and Hazara divisions are not the ANP strongholds. They said though women candidates nomination for general seats in these areas was a good step, yet ANP had never won seats in the parts of these districts where from these women candidates were nominated.

However, Peshawar is one of the strongholds of the ANP where the party nominated two women against the general seats.

Former provincial president of the ANP and spouse of Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Begum Nasim Wali Khan was elected to the provincial assembly thrice on the general seat from her hometown Charssada district.

The ANP has formed a five-member committee for seat-to-seat adjustment with other political parties for the upcoming general elections.

The committee, led by the party provincial president Aimal Wali Khan, visited Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl central office to discuss the possibility of seat adjustment.

It is believed that the ANP is likely to withdraw its candidates, including women, in favour of other party candidates if seat adjustment is made with other political parties.

The ANP list of candidates for the upcoming elections shows that about 80 percent candidates are young and new faces in different constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including merged districts of the province.