Will Haroon Bilour’s widow contestby-election on PK-78?

PESHAWAR: Though Awami National Party (ANP) leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has ruled out the possibility of late Haroon Bilour’s wife contesting election from her husband’s PK-78 constituency, the final decision may yet take time as the by-election won’t be held soon.

Danyal Bilour, the teenager son of Haroon Bilour, had first mentioned his mother becoming a candidate for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly constituency, PK-78 Peshawar, in place of her martyred husband. He had told the media that she will contest the by-election.

Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, the 79-year old head of the Bilour family, was asked at a recent press conference if it has been decided that Haroon Bilour’s wife will contest the by-election. He said no such decision had been taken yet, arguing that they don’t want to lose another member of the family.

However, the fact remains that Ghulam Ahmad Bilour is already a candidate for the National Assembly constituency, NA-31 Peshawar, and he too risks being targetted by the militants. The terrorists have already attacked two members of the Bilour family – Bashir Bilour who was martyred in December 2012 and his son Haroon Bilour who embraced martyrdom on July 10, 2018 –, and they won’t hesitate to target even the family’s head Ghulam Ahmad Bilour if an opportunity came their way. So Ghulam Ahmad Bilour would be as much at risk as any other prominent member of the Bilour family, including Haroon Bilour’s widow, Samar Haroon Bilour. Perhaps a woman will be less at risk than the male members of the Bilour family.

As there is going to be a sympathy vote following Haroon Bilour’s martyrdom, someone close to him will be better able to get these votes. That person could be his wife or his two sons. As his sons, Danyal and Bassim, are both still teenagers and cannot become candidates under the law, their mother would be the obvious choice to contest the by-polls as the ANP candidate. In fact, Danyal Bilour has shown a flair for politics already by calming down enraged workers of the ANP after the suicide bombing that took the life of his father. He kept reminding the party activists of the teachings non-violence of of their political and spiritual leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, affectionately known as Bacha Khan.

Samar Haroon Bilour is the daughter of former provincial minister in Sindh, Irfanullah Marwat, and grand-daughter of late President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan. She has done her Senior Cambridge from Karachi, where Irfanullah Marwat’s family has been living for years. Her brothers are highly educated. Her father is still active in Karachi politics.

If the Bilours decide to field someone else from the family instead of Samar Haroon Bilour to contest the by-election on PK-78, then the choice would be between the sons of Aziz Bilour and Ilyas Bilour, the brothers of Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and late Bashir Bilour.

This has been the Bilour family seat in the provincial assembly and Bashir Bilour had won it a number of times. Haroon Bilour had lost the election for this seat in 2013 and he was hoping to win it this time. The ANP is expected to leave it to the Bilour family to select a candidate for the by-election on the seat. Eventually, the candidate most likely would be a member of the Bilour family. Obviously, Haroon Bilour’s wife would be a popular choice if she is fielded for PK-78 in the by-election.