Six former CMs, kin set to contest Feb 8 elections in KP

Similarly, 13 scions, including sons and grandsons of these former CMs, would also participate in elections in various parts of province

By Khalid Kheshgi

January 19, 2024

People line up as election officials check their ballot papers during voting in the general election at a polling station in Lahore. — AFP/File

PESHAWAR: In the upcoming February 8 general elections, six former chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are set to contest elections on both the national and provincial assembly constituencies.

Similarly, 13 scions, including sons and grandsons of these former chief ministers, would also participate in the elections in various parts of the province.

Four of the previous chief executives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have switched political parties. Notably, Akram Khan Durrani and Ameer Haider Khan Hoti have maintained their association with the parties from which they were elected to the provincial assembly, subsequently becoming chief ministers of the province.

The central chairman of Qaumi Watan Party, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, will vie for NA-24, Charsadda on his party ticket in the February 8 elections. He previously lost to a PTI candidate in the 2018 elections for the same constituency.

In 1988, he secured provincial assembly and National Assembly seats from Peshawar and Charsadda on a Pakistan People’s Party ticket, later opting for a provincial assembly seat and subsequently becoming the chief minister of the province.

In 1993, he was once again elected as chief minister after a vote of no-confidence against the then chief minister Pir Sabir Shah in the formerly NWFP Assembly. His son, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, who is the provincial president of the QWP, will contest for a provincial assembly seat from Charsadda.

Sikandar Sherpao, a former provincial senior minister, was elected to the provincial assembly three times but, like his father, lost to the PTI candidate in the 2018 general elections.

Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, who served as chief minister and governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the past, will contest the elections as an independent candidate from his hometown, Abbottabad. Having been elected to the Senate of Pakistan, the National Assembly, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz platform, Sardar Mehtab developed differences with his party leadership in 2023. He remained chief minister of the erstwhile NWFP from 1997 to 1999 and served as governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2014 to 2016.

Former federal minister and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Akram Khan Durrani, has been awarded tickets for two provincial assembly constituencies in Bannu district. His son, Zaid Akram Durrani, a former deputy speaker of the National Assembly, is the JUIF candidate for a National Assembly seat in Bannu. Akram Durrani was elected as chief minister of the province when the then Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) secured the majority of seats in the 2002 general elections. He has long been associated with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl.

In the 2008 general elections, when the Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party won the majority of seats and formed a coalition government in the province, the ANP nominated Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and elected him as the chief executive of the province. Hoti made it to the National Assembly in the 2013 and 2018 polls, and this time, the party has awarded him tickets for one National Assembly and one provincial assembly constituencies in Mardan for the 2024 general polls.

Former chief minister Pervez Khattak has formed his own faction of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf after the May 9 violent protests and will contest for NA-33, Nowshera, and two provincial assembly constituencies of PK-87 and PK-88, Nowshera on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarian tickets.

In the 2018 general elections, he won one National Assembly and one provincial assembly seat on a PTI ticket but later abandoned the provincial assembly seat to become a federal minister in the Imran Khan-led government in the centre. His two sons, Ibrahim Khattak, also a former MPA, and Ismael Khattak, will contest for provincial assembly constituencies in Nowshera on the PTIP ticket, while his son-in-law Dr Imran Khattak, an ex-MNA, is the party candidate for NA-34, Nowshera and PK-89, Nowshera. Pervez Khattak served as chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2013 to 2018.

Another former chief minister, Mahmood Khan, has also parted ways with his previous party PTI and now serves as the central vice-chairman of the PTIP. He will contest for one National Assembly and one provincial assembly constituency in Swat in the upcoming polls. In Pakistan’s history, the PTI had formed the government for a second consecutive term in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a result of the 2018 general elections and enjoyed the maximum majority in the 145-member provincial assembly. However, on the call of his central leadership, Mahmood Khan dissolved the provincial assembly in 2022 and resigned as chief minister.

Among the sons and grandsons of former chief ministers of the then NWFP, Maulana Fazl Rehman’s family is very active in electoral politics.

Like the previous general elections, the late Maulana Mufti Mehmood’s (ex-chief minister) sons, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Ubaid-ur-Rehman, and Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman, are the JUIF candidates for National Assembly and provincial assembly constituencies in Dera Ismael Khan. Mufti Mehmood’s two grandsons Maulana Asaad Mehmood, a former federal minister, and Maulana Asjad Mehmood will contest for the National Assembly from Tank and Lakki Marwat districts in the 2024 elections. Maulana Mufti Mehmood served as chief minister of the JUI-NAP coalition government soon after the 1971 general elections.

Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil, the son of former chief minister Arbab Jehangir Khan, will contest for the National Assembly constituency in Peshawar on the Pakistan People’s Party ticket. His son, Arbab Zarak Khan, is the PPP candidate for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat in Peshawar. His spouse and former MNA, Asma Alamgir, is also shortlisted for women-reserved seats for the National Assembly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Arbab Alamgir had served as chief minister of the province after non-party-based elections in 1985.

Another scion (grandson) of former chief minister Aghaaz Gandapur will contest on the JUIF ticket from Dera Ismail Khan, where he had previously been elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on the PTI ticket. Sardar Inayatullah Gandapur served as chief minister in the PPP-led government in the then NWFP Assembly. His two sons, Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur and Ikramullah Gandapur, have been elected to the provincial assembly several times, and both fell victim to terrorism in their hometown Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan.