ANP fields six women candidates for general seats

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has fielded six woman candidates for general seats of the national and provincial assemblies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

All the six candidates are contesting from Hazara division. Keeping in view past results of polls, none seems to have a fair chance of winning. They includeIrum Fatima who has been fielded for the National Assembly constituency NA-17.

The constituency was known as NA-19 before 2018. However, it was renamed as NA-17 after the delimitation this year.

In the 2002 general election Omar Ayub Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) had won this seat by securing 81,496 votes. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Muhammad Sabir Shah was the runner-up with 61,359 votes.

Sardar Muhammad Mushtaq Khan of the PML-N won the seat in 2008 by polling 98,670 votes. An independent candidate Raja AamirZaman was the runner-up bagging 71,254 votes.

In the 2013 polls Raja AamirZaman who had contested the election on the ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2013 was the winner with 117,612 votes. He was followed by Omar Ayub Khan of the PML-N with 116,308 votes.

The runner-up Omar Ayub Khan had challenged the results of 78 polling stations and accused the winner of rigging.

A division bench of the Supreme Court had ordered re-polling at the 78 polling stations.

The Election Commission of Pakistan conducted re-polling at seven polling stations. The PML-N candidate Omar Ayub Khan was declared winner in the re-election.

However, Raja AamirZaman challenged the process of re-polling and filed a petition in the Supreme Court to get it nullified. The Supreme Court set aside the earlier verdict and ordered re-election in the constituency.

Later, Omar Ayub Khan decided not to contest the by-election citing his mothers illness as the reason for not taking part in the polls.

The PML-N fielded Babar Nawaz Khan who got 137,227 votes and was declared winner. He is again contesting election on the ticket of the PML-N while Omar Ayub Khan is in the contest for the fourth time. This time he has filed his nomination papers for the polls on the PTI ticket.

Irum Fatima and the Pakistan People’s Party candidate ShaistaNaz have entered the contest against the two male stalwarts.

The ANP candidateIrum Fatima had contested the 2013 election from the same constituency and was defeated. ShaistaNaz is running for the National Assembly seat for the first time.