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Thursday March 28, 2024

Most PTI women candidates were with PML-Q in 2002

By Faizan Bangash
July 02, 2018

LAHORE: The list of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf women candidates from the general seats, issued on Saturday, include some noted figures who had vowed allegiance to two or more parties in the past after winning the polls on their tickets.

Among the current lot of PTI women ticket-holders from Punjab, Ghulam Bibi Bharwana from Jhang is the most experienced politician, who has consecutively won directly in three general elections including 2002, 2008 and 2013.

Bharwana remained part of the PML-Q for almost nine years, and then came close to the PML-N. She won the 2013 general election again as the PML-N candidate from the district. She is now a PTI candidate from NA-115 and is in the third political party of her career.

Rubina Shaheen Wattoo, daughter of former chief minister Punjab Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, has been fielded from PP-185, Okara by the PTI. She was also elected an MNA in 2002 general elections. Although his father himself founded a political party namely PML-Jinnah, after merger of the Muslim League factions into PML-Q, Rubina remained an MNA of the PML-Q till 2008. Rubina was elected an MPA in 2008 as an independent candidate and joined the PPP along with the entire group of his father after the 2008 general election. Rubina lost the 2013 polls, though his brother Khurram won in the by-election as a PPP candidate.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan reached the National Assembly on the PML-Q reserved seats for women. However, she joined the PPP in late 2007 and created a super upset in Punjab in the 2008 general election when she defeated former speaker National Assembly Ch Ameer Hussain, with a margin of around 40,000 votes.

Fridous served as the federal minister for information in PPP government and contested the 2013 polls on symbol of arrow, but lost. She remained a vociferous critic of PPP's reconciliation policy with the PML-N and finally left the PPP last year.

Firdous is now contesting once again from the same constituency. In this way, Dr Firdous is in the third political party of her career.

Riffat Javed Kahlu, who is the PTI ticket holder from PP-49, a district Narowal seat in 2018 election, had defeated the PML-N candidate Ahsan Iqbal in 2002 as the PML-Q candidate.

Rashida Yaqoob, who is now a PTI candidate from PP-126, Jhang, was elected as an MPA of the PML-N in 2013 and after facing disqualification, she had to quit office. Her husband Mohammed Yaqoob Sheikh was an MPA of the PML-Q in 2002 and 2008, who later joined the Unification bloc, formed by the PML-N. Now, this group is in the third political party.

Ashfa Riaz Fatyana, who has been awarded ticket for PP-122, Toba Tek Singh, is wife of former MNA Riaz Fatyana, and her son Ehsan Riaz was elected as an MPA in independent capacity in 2013 from a seat in Faisalabad. Ashfa was a PML-Q MPA between 2002-2008 and lost the 2008 election with a very narrow margin at the hands of PML-N's Nazia Raheel. Her husband, Riaz Fatyana, had sided with the IJI, PML-J, for a brief period of time. He was also a member of the PML-N, and now he is in the PTI.

Dr Nadia Aziz, another PTI ticket holder on a general seat, was elected as an MPA in 2002 general election on the PPP ticket and was the only PPP woman legislator who was directly elected from Punjab. Nadia suffered defeat in the 2008 general election and finally ended her long affiliation with the PPP in 2013 when, as the PML-N candidate, she emerged victorious.

This time, Nadia is a PTI candidate, which is her third political party since she started electoral politics.

Khadeeja Amir Waran has been fielded by the PTI from a Bahawalpur National Assembly seat. Khadeeja was elected as an MNA on the PPP ticket in a by-poll in 2010, after her husband, who was elected as an Independent candidate in 2008, had to quit office over the issue of his degree. Her brother, Jehanzaib Waran, was also an MPA in 2008, but he sided with the PML-N. The Warans are now siding with the PTI.