PTI-backed Shandana only woman to win NA seat in KP

PESHAWAR: Shandana Gulzar, an independent candidate backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is the only woman who won a National Assembly seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the February 8 elections.

Surayya Bibi from Chitral also defeated her male rivals in PK-1 Upper Chitral to represent the remote district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. This is for the first time that two women have been elected from KP in one general election.

Shandana Gulzar who was contesting for NA-30 Peshawar, got 78,971 votes while her close rivals Nasir Musazai of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam secured 20,950 and Arbab Zain Umar of the Awami National Party managed to get 11,854 votes. She had been running an aggressive campaign in the area over the last few weeks.

In 2018, she was elected MNA on a reserved seat for women. In the 2013 general elections, her father Gulzar Khan was elected MNA from this constituency on the ticket of PTI. She emerged as a strong woman, who decided to contest polls from a conservative rural area despite innumerable challenges in the last few months.

She is the fifth woman in history of KP who won election on a general seat and the third woman to have won a National Assembly seat. Another female, Surayya Bibi, who was an independent candidate from PK -1 Upper Chitral, was elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly.

She got 18914 votes in the general elections while the runner up Shakil Ahmad of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam got 10533 votes. Former MPA from Peshawar Samar Haroon Bilour failed to retain her seat this time despite she fought well.

Exhibiting a great gesture, she visited the residence of the independent candidate Meena Khan to congratulate him on his victory from her constituency. Saweera Parkash, who ran an impressive campaign on social media after winning a Pakistan People’s Party ticket for PK-25 Buner, also failed to win her seat. She could get only 1754 votes while the winner bagged over 28,000 votes.

From the provincial capital, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had contested the 1990 polls for NA-1 Peshawar (which mostly comprised present day NA-32) but she had lost to Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP).

From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Ghazala Habib Tanoli and Samar Haroon Bilour were the only women who won a general seat in the past elections.

The late leader of ANP, Begum Nasim Wali Khan, was the first-ever woman from KP who won a general seat in the National Assembly, the then NA-4 Peshawar, in the 1977 polls. She is also the only woman to have won both NA and PA general seats from KP in her political career.

In the 1988 general elections, the wife of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Begum Nusrat Bhutto of Pakistan People’s Party was elected an MNA from Chitral after she secured 32,819 votes to defeat her rival Shahzada Muhiuddin of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, who had secured 23,405 votes. She later vacated the seat and Ghafoor Shah of PPP was elected MNA from the area.

Another woman, Ghazala Habib Tanoli contested on a general seat and was elected an MPA from Mansehra in 2002 by receiving over 11,900 votes.

Sixteen years later, Samar Haroon Bilour was elected MPA from Peshawar in the 2018 general elections. She was fielded after her spouse Haroon Bilour was martyred in a suicide attack during his election campaign.

Begum Kulsum Saifullah Khan from KP was the first woman federal minister of Pakistan but she entered the NA on a special seat for women. A large number of women were contesting the February 8 polls from different constituencies but except Shandana and Surayya all failed to win against their male rivals.

Several women had tried their luck for a general seat in NA or PA from different parts of KP in the past years but they failed.