Candidates intensify poll campaigns in Haripur

HARIPUR: The election campaign has gained momentum with about a week left until the February 8 run off. The candidates have geared up their canvassing by addressing cornermeetings and door-to-door visits as a last ditch effort to woo their voters.

Despite being largest in terms of vote count, the Haripur district has one

National Assembly seat of NA 18 and three provincial assembly seats of PK-46 Haripur I, PK-47 Haripur-II and PK-48 Haripur-III with registered votes of 724,915.

During the election 2018, the PTI had won one National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats while the third one was captured by Faisal Zaman in independent capacity.

For the NA-18, there are 16 candidates from different small and mainstream political parties including a woman on general seat and eight independent contestants. But a close contest is expected between PTI’s general secretary and candidate for NA-18 Omar Ayub Khan and PMLN’s aspirant Babar Nawaz Khan.

Omar Ayub is contesting on the symbol of laptop following ECP’s decision of declaring all the PTI’s candidates independent. Omar Ayub has been absconding after facing over 30 criminal charges after May 9 last year due to which he could hardly turn up to a single corner meeting unlike the past. But he had tried to keep his voters in loop via social media.

While on the other hand, his rival candidate PMLN’s Babar Nawaz has successfully seized the opportunity of his absence and claimed to have won the support of some big social groups whose support matters for the success of a candidate in real sense.

Former PMLN’s MNA Sardar Mushtaq, who enjoyed the support of his Gujjar tribe and former PTI’s MNA Dr Raja Amir Zaman, whose family has a solid vote bank in Haripur, were among the political personalities who have announced their support to Babar Nawaz publicly, making the election for NA-18 more interesting.

In PK 46 Haripur I, there were a total of 257,510 registered voters and 14 candidates including a transgender and three women were contesting.

Almost all the mainstream, religious and regional parties have fielded their candidates but according to political analysts, a tough contest was expected between former provincial minister and PTI’s candidate Akbar Ayub Khan and former provincial minister and independent candidate Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan. Other main contestants were PMLN’s Dr Shaista Khan, QWP’s Dr Faiza Rasheed, PTIP’s Zafir Khan, independent candidate Jehanzeb Khan of Darwaza.

In PK 47 Haripur II, also known as Khanpur-cum- Haripur, a total of 10 candidates, including three women, are in the run for the general seat. The constituency has 242,563 registered votes.

The two main contesting candidates included PTI’s sitting aspirant and former provincial minister Arshad Ayub Khan, former provincial minister and independent candidate Raja Faisal Zaman, son of late senior parliamentarian Raja Sikandar Zaman.

Arshad was trying to stage a comeback for the second time while Raja Faisal served the constituency more than three times in the past. Both the main contenders appeared to be confident of returning successful on the basis of performance and the respective support they claimed to have enjoyed. However, the observers termed the contest on this seat as the most interesting and tough.

The constituency of PK 48 Haripur III, Ghazi-cum Haripur, has 16 candidates including three women and nine independent contestants where 224,842 were the registered voters. The contesting candidates in this constituency were PMLN’s nominee Sahibzada Hamid Shah, nephew of Senator Pir Sabir Shah, PTI’s Malik Adeel Iqbal, former MPA and sitting independent candidate Faisal Zaman and former MPA Gohar Nawaz Khan who is also vying in independent capacity.