close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Elections 2018: Finding candidates for 849 constituencies uphill task for major parties

By Tariq Butt
June 11, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Every major political party faces an uphill task to have formidable candidates available for a maximum of 849 directly contested federal and provincial constituencies.

None of the three principal political forces – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – is in a position to field its representatives for all these seats for not enjoying sufficient public support and wherewithal to fight in every area. The biggest problem is to find vote getting contestants everywhere.

In Punjab, a political party will need to have at least 438 candidates – 141 for the National Assembly and 297 for the Punjab Assembly – if it wants to vie for all the seats. Similarly, it will require 138 representatives – 39 for the federal legislature and 99 for the provincial assembly - in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

In Sindh, a party will require to field 191 nominees – 61 for the National Assembly and 130 for the provincial assembly – in the electoral fight while in Balochistan it will have to put up 67 candidates - 16 for the central legislature and 51 for the provincial assembly. Islamabad has three seats apart from 12 constituencies of the tribal areas.

Every political party has its own area of popular strength according to which it fields candidates. For example, the PPP will have its nominees in every federal and provincial constituency of Sindh as it is ahead of its rivals in the popularity graph. But it is incapable to have its candidates in most constituencies of Punjab while its position compared to this state of affairs in the majority province is better in KP and Balochistan.

Senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira has admitted in a TV talk that his party is finding difficulties in finding suitable candidates in some areas of Punjab. But there is no such predicament in Sindh, KP and Balochistan.

The PML-N is not letting any federal and provincial seat in Punjab uncontested for having a massive sway in this province. But it is at a loss to find and put up candidates in Sindh and Balochistan in most constituencies. However, it is not confronted with such difficult situation in KP.

Top PML-N leader Senator Pervez Rashid told The News that his party would contest all the Punjab and KP seats while it would sponsor its candidates for several constituencies of Sindh and Balochistan.

The PTI is fielding its nominees in almost all the constituencies of Punjab and KP. In the first installment of allotment of seats, it nominated 116 candidates for the National Assembly in Punjab, 32 for KP, ten each for Sindh and Balochistan, three for Islamabad and seven for the tribal areas. The data clearly shows that Punjab and KP take precedence over other provinces in terms of number of awarded tickets.

When approached by The News, senior PTI leader Shafqat Mahmood stated that his feeling was that his party would be able to sponsor candidates for almost 98pc of all the directly contested seats. He explained that the PTI would put up its representatives for all the Punjab seats and KP while it would field its nominees for most of the constituencies of Sindh and Balochistan.

All the three parties have either worked out or in the process of finalising “seat adjustments” with other electoral players. The PML-N is having this arrangement in some areas in KP with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) specifically its component Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in KP, and with the National Party of Hasil Bizenjo and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) of Mehmood Achakzai in Balochistan.

The PTI is having seat adjustment with the PML-Q in some areas including Chakwal where Chaudhry Pervez Elahi is vying for a federal seat. It doesn’t have any such arrangement in KP while it may have it in Karachi.

Meanwhile, the heads of all these three parties have decided to fight for a number of seats across Pakistan. This is not something unusual. Political leaders who think they are equally popular in every area of the country do engage in such contests. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had also done so.

Imran Khan will fight for National Assembly seats in Islamabad, Mianwali, Karachi, Bannu and Lahore. Shahbaz Sharif plans to contest for federal seats from Lahore, Karachi, Dera Ghazi Khan and Swat. Bilawal may jump in the electoral fray from Malakand, Karachi and Larkana.

There are a number of leaders who are simultaneously fighting for the federal and provincial seats. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has filed nomination papers for two national and two provincial seats of Rawalpindi.