Aimal Wali suffers third electoral defeat in a row

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) provincial President Aimal Wali Khan, the only son of Asfandyar Wali Khan, faced his third consecutive defeat in elections since his debut in electoral politics in 2018.

In the February 8 general election, he lost to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independent candidate by a huge margin at his home district Charsadda. Thus, he became the first politician in Abdul Wali Khan’s family, who met defeat in electoral politics for the third consecutive time.

In the 2018 general election, he was a candidate of the ANP for provincial assembly constituency in Charsadda but lost to PTI candidate Sultan Mohammad Khan. He had obtained about 22,141 votes. In the 2022 by-election, he was the joint candidate of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) but lost to former prime minister Imran Khan, who was the PTI candidate. In the same polls, he got about 68,356 votes. In February 8 polls, he once again could not make it to the parliament and lost to PTI-backed independent candidate Fazl Mohammad Khan by a big margin.

Aimal Wali, 37, stepped in active politics in 2011 when he was elected as provincial joint secretary of the ANP in intra-party polls. In 2014, he was made provincial deputy general secretary of his party. In the 2019 intra-party polls, Aimal Wali became provincial president of the Pakhtun nationalist party.

Looking into the electoral politics and history of Wali Khan’s family, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, also known as Dr Khan Sahib, had been elected to the Central Legislative Council in 1935 during British rule who also served as chief minister of the then North West Frontier Province before partition and became the Chief Minister of the West Pakistan (One Unit) in 1955. Similarly, the elder son of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, alias Baacha Khan, Khan Abdul Ghani Khan also made it to the Central Legislative Council in British rule.

Abdul Wali, grandfather of Aimal Wali, had secured both provincial and National Assembly seats in the 1970 elections. In the 1988 general election, Wali Khan lost his provincial assembly constituency to the PPP candidate but was elected to Member National Assembly in the same election. However, the ANP founding leader retired from electoral politics when he lost to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl candidate in 1990 general election from his hometown Charsadda.

Begum Nasim Wali Khan, grandmother of Aimal Wali, was the only member in Wali Khan’s family who had not lost any elections and had won her general seats for four times in the general election since 1977.

In the 1977 general election, Begum Nasim Wali Khan contested the polls when her husband Wali Khan and other nationalist leaders were in jail and became the first woman who defeated male candidates in the general election in Pakistan.

She was elected to provincial assembly three times while contesting on general seats on the ANP platform from Charsadda.

Begum Nasim’s son Sangeen Wali Khan unsuccessfully contested the 2002 general election while Asfandyar Wali, president of the ANP, won and lost several elections from 1993 to 2018.

Asfandyar Wali did not contest the February 08 polls due to his illness and fielded his son Aimal Wali for NA-25 Charsadda. The Pakhtun nationalist faced its worst defeat in the 2024 elections where it got only one single provincial assembly seat from Peshawar.