Apart from PTI’s Shaukat Ali, his namesake also contestingfrom NA-31 Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Two candidates named Shaukat Ali are contesting election for the National Assembly constituency, NA-31 Peshawar, but one has been fielded by the Pakistan Tehreek-e=Insaf (PTI) and the other is an unknown independent candidate.

Shaukat Ali, commonly called Haji Shaukat Ali, is a former town nazim in Peshawar. He had joined the PTI in February 2017 and soon after that one started hearing that he will get the ticket to challenge ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour. The prediction turned out to be true when he was awarded the PTI ticket from NA-31 for the July 25 general election.

As Shaukat Ali will be getting the election symbol of ‘bat’ allotted to the PTI, the party workers and supporters cannot be misled into voting for the other Shaukat Ali. However, some voters could vote for this Shaukat Ali instead of PTI’s Shaukat Ali.

It is unclear why Shaukat Ali, who nobody really knows, has entered the contest. Or who sponsored him and prepared his nomination papers?

As PTI’s Shaukat Ali is the main candidate against Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, the Bilours would use every trick of the trade to defeat him. Having contested elections for years from Peshawar, the Bilour family is experienced enough to exploit every opportunity to weaken the position of their major electoral rivals. We don’t know if Shaukat Ali has been fielded by the Bilours or by some other candidate to confuse voters, but such tactics are not new. The PTI’s Shaukat Ali would have to be alert to foil attempts to confuse his voters.