2018 general election: Tiff over ticket allotment may hurt ANP in Mardan

MARDAN: The Awami National Party (ANP) is facing grouping in its rank and file after the announcement of candidates for the national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies in the district, sources said.
They said that most of the candidates, who weren’t allotted tickets, were considering quitting the ANP.
Dozens of office-bearers of ANP belonging to Babani Union Council resigned to protest the decision of the parliamentary board to allot ticket for constituency NA-11 Mardan to Gul Nawaz Khan.
Engr Nazir Khan, president of ANP in the Babani Union Council had submitted an application for the ticket of NA-11, but it was given to Gul Nawaz Khan instead. The party’s parliamentary board announced the candidates for the two national and eight provincial assembly seats in Mardan in a hurry, the sources believed.
ANP provincial president Ameer Haider Hoti will contest the upcoming general election from NA-9 Mardan and PK-23 Mardan.
For NA-10 Mardan, Mian Tahir submitted application, but the party has yet to announce candidate for this seat. For NA-11 Mardan, the ANP has awarded ticket to Gul Faraz Khan.
Ali Khan will run for PK 24, Himayatullah Mayar for PK-25 and Sher Afghan Khan for PK-26. The last-named recently quit the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and joined the ANP.
The ANP has decided to field Nasir Khan for PK-27 and Farooq Akram Khan will run for PK-28. Shah-i-Rom will stand for PK-29 and Humayun Khan will run for PK-30.
The allotment of party tickets has annoyed some local leaders. It would damage the party position in Mardan as some of them are expected to part ways with the ANP.
The sources further said that party leadership didn’t allot ticket to lawmakers Ahmed Khan Bahadur and Gohar Ali Shah, who won seats in the 2013 general election when the party had suffered a huge defeat in the polls after ruling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for five years.
Some party workers have started criticising the decision of parliamentary board for ignoring them in the allotment of tickets for the 2018 polls.
Important candidates Shah Faisal Khan and Ameer Farzand Khan were also ignored in the allotment of party ticket.
It is feared that the disagreement over the distribution of tickets may hurt party candidates in the next general election as the annoyed ones could create problems for them.
The sources added that in the 2013 by-election when the party allotted ticket to Ahmad Khan Bahadur for PK-23 and ignored Himayatullah Mayar, the latter allegedly created problems for the former.
In PK 26, the party candidate may also face this problem. The sources added that PPP local leadership had contacted Malik Ijaz and if he joined it and contested election on its ticket he would give a tough time to the ANP candidate.
For PK-30, the party allotted ticket to Humayun Khan and ignored Naeem Anwar, who has strong vote-bank in the constituency.