Stalwarts flexing muscles for Peshawar’s five NA seats

PESHAWAR: A number of political heavyweights are flexing their muscles to win the five National Assembly seats from the provincial capital in the upcoming general election.

The provincial capital has five NA and 13 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats. Though Peshawar had 14 representatives in the KP Assembly in the 2018 general election, it lost one seat in the wake of fresh delimitation.

In the 2018 general election, candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had won all the five NA seats from Peshawar. However, three of them are no longer part of the party. The PTI nominees are contesting the polls as independent candidates after it lost its iconic electoral symbol ‘bat’.

In NA-28 Peshawar-1, former speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Kiramatullah Chagharmati of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is contesting against former MNA Noor Alam Khan of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF).

Another former MNA Sajid Nawaz of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), former provincial minister Hafiz Hashmat of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Muhammad Fayyaz Khan of Awami National Party (ANP) are also in the run for NA-28 comprising the northern villages of the provincial capital.

Noor Alam was elected MNA from this constituency in 2018 on the ticket of PTI but he later parted ways with the party. Sajid Nawaz won from the area in 2013 as the PTI candidate. Kiramatullah is another strong contender in this constituency.

In NA-29, former MNA Arbab Amir Ayub is a candidate of the PTI while other frontrunners included former MPA Saqibullah Chamkani of ANP, Akhundzada Irfanullah Shah of JUIF, Malik Amjad Awan of PPP and Ghulam Muhiyuddin of JI.

Amir Ayub was elected MNA from this area on the ticket of PTI in the previous election.

In NA-30 Peshawar, former PTI MNA Shandana Gulzar is contesting against Nasir Musazai of JUIF, Arbab Zain Umar of ANP, Raees Khan of PMLN, Kashif Azam of JI and Misbahuddin of PPP.

Nasir Musazai won the polls from the area in 2018 as the candidate of PTI but he joined the JUIF last year. Shandana was elected MNA on a reserved seat for women in 2018.

In NA-31, former MNA Arbab Sher Ali of PTI is flexing muscles against former federal minister Arbab Alamgir of PPP, Pir Haroon Shah of ANP, Muhammad Saeed Jan of JUIF, Sobia Shahid of PMLN and Imdad Khalil of JI.

Arbab Sher Ali was elected MNA from the area in the 2018 general election as a PTI contender. Arbab Alamgir also remained MNA from this area in 2008.

In the inner city, seasoned politician and former federal minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of ANP is facing independent candidate Asif Khan, who is a nominee of PTI, Abidullah Yousafzai of PPP, Hussain Madani of JUIF, Sher Rehman of PMLN and Tariq Mateen of JI in the NA-32.

In the 2018 general election, Shaukat Ali of PTI was elected MNA after defeating Ghulam Bilour. Former prime minister Imran Khan also won the seat in the by-election in 2022 while Bilour was the runner-up.

The PTI has nominated its former MPA Asif Khan after Shaukat Ali quit the party. Several PTI workers have filed papers from the area who are still in the run against Asif Khan and others.

Besides, the PPP candidate was a senior member of ANP until recently who quit the nationalist party just before the polls after he was not allotted a ticket. Another candidate, Sher Rahman, also quit the ANP just before the polls after he was denied the ticket.