NA-22 Mardan: PTI has to make difficult choice as Ali Mohammad unlikely to get ticket

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has to make a difficult choice while deciding the award of ticket for the National Assembly constituency, NA-22 Mardan, as the incumbent lawmaker Ali Mohammad Khan is facing a strong challenge from other contenders and may not be fielded again to contest the election.

The NA-22, which was previously called NA-10, includes the Takht Bhai tehsil of Mardan district.

Sources said the PTI MNA Ali Mohammad Khan is unlikely to get the ticket this time due to complaints that he failed to stay in contact with his voters. Though he frequently appeared in TV talk shows to steadfastly defend PTI and remained loyal to the party, he was reportedly unable to give much time to his constituency.

Ali Mohammad Khan had decisively won the seat by getting 46,531 votes in the 2013 general election and defeating frequent winner Maulana Mohammad Qasim of the JUI-F who polled 39,269. Other notable vote-getters in the election were ANP’s Mohammad Farooq Khan with 19,436 votes, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sultan Mohammad polling 19,107, PPP’s Nawabzada Abdul Qadir Khan getting 15,343 votes and PML-N’s Naseem Mohammad Khan obtaining 11,491 votes.

If Ali Mohammad Khan isn’t given the ticket as is widely believed, the contest for the PTI ticket would narrow down primarily to former provincial minister Iftikhar Mohmand and Amir Khan, a lawyer by profession and grandson of veteran politician Sarfaraz Khan. The sources said Iftikhar Mohmand is expected to get the nod even though he joined the PTI recently. However, he has experience of serving as a minister in past governments. He has contested a number of times, winning a few times and losing more recent elections.

If Amir Khan isn’t given the PTI ticket to contest for the National Assembly, he may be compensated by asking him to compete for the provincial assembly. In that case, he would have to challenge not only former MPA Jamshed Mohmand, who is now in the PML-N, but also ANP’s Bahadur Khan, PPP’s Rahimdad Khan or his son Asad, and Jamaat-i-Islami/MMA’s Fazal Rabbani, a former provincial minister. Amir Khan, Bahadur Khan and Rahimdad Khan are close relatives as well.

Sarfaraz Khan, now 96 years old, had once won this seat on the ticket of the PPP. His family joined the PTI early this year after Amir Khan and his cousins met with Imran Khan at Banigala. Later on April 15, Sarfaraz Khan’s family organized a big public meeting at Hathian village in Mardan district in a show of strength. Imran Khan was reportedly impressed with the gathering in the village. Subsequently, the family was hoping that Amir Khan would be getting the PTI ticket for NA-22 and it had started to mobilize its supporters in the constituency for contesting the election.

In case Iftikhar Mohmand gets the PTI ticket for NA-22 and Amir Khan is asked to contest for a provincial assembly seat, the party’s old guard could react negatively if not taken into confidence beforehand as both these candidates are relatively newcomers in the PTI even though they have their own vote-bank in the constituency. It would be a challenge to placate the old party workers and former PTI candidates, such as Adil Nawaz who polled significant number of votes in the contest for the provincial assembly seat in May 2013 against Imran Mohmand and following his death in a suicide bombing against his brother Jamshed Mohmand in the by-election.