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Thursday March 28, 2024

15 candidates in the run for PK-73

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
July 24, 2018

PESHAWAR: There are 15 candidates contesting for the urban constituency PK-73 comprising Hayatabad, University Town and the campus of University of Peshawar, but Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate (PTI) Taimur Saleem Jhagra has an edge over his opponents.

Jhagra and Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)’s Maulana Amanullah Haqqani are stated to be the strongest contenders for this seat.

Before delimitation, it was called PK-5. During the 2013 general election, Yasin Khalil was elected as Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) on the PTI ticket from the constituency.

He had come to PTI from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and secured 31,639 votes, largely due to Imran Khan’s and PTI popularity.

Yasin Khalil was then made advisor to chief minister on transport. Later he developed differences with chief minister Pervez Khattak.

According to insiders in the party, Khattak persuaded Imran Khan to sack both Yasin Khalil and Shaukat Yousafzai on corruption charges, though later it was announced that they were dismissed for poor performance.

Yasin Khalil rejoined PPP and is now contesting election on its ticket. There are six known candidates in the fight for PK-73.

Apart from Yasin Khalil, Maulana Amanullah Haqqani and Taimur Saleem Jhagra, ther others are Falak Niaz Khalil of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Farhad Ali of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Awami National Party’s Mohammad Salim Akhtar Durrani.

In 2013, Amanullah Haqqani bagged the second highest votes after the PTI winner Yasin Khalil.

He secured 6,957 votes and his position was better than other well-known politicians such as PPP’s Dr Arbab Alamgir, ANP’s Arbab Tahir and PML-N’s Farhad Ali.

Arbab Alamgir received just 2,255 ballots in the 2013 election. The voters were not satisfied with his performance at all.

During a survey of the constituency, this correspondent found that PTI’s Taimur Jhagra and MMA’ Maulana Amanullah Haqqani were in strong position.

Taimur Jhagra belongs to the famous Jhagra family living in suburbs of Peshawar. He is the son of retired civil servant Saleem Khan Jhagra, who had also served as Secretary Health in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Taimur Jhagra, grandson of late President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, is highly educated and had worked as a partner in a private firm overseas before returning home.

“He used to exaggerate his story of quitting a highly paid job just to return home and support Imran Khan. He no doubt left a good job, but it wasn’t as highly paid as he used to tell people to impress the PTI leadership,” said an insider of Banigala, the home of Imran Khan and party secretariat.

He said that Taimur Jhagra was made head of PTI policy unit at Banigala that drafted policies for the first 100 days of the PTI government in the country.

He reportedly worked in Banigala voluntarily. It was apparently due to his dedication to Imran Khan and services for the party that impressed the party leader to issue him the party ticket for PK-73 Peshawar.

According to PTI circles, 32 people had applied for the PTI ticket for PK-73 and some of them were close to Pervez Khattak but Imran stood in his commitment with Taimur Jhagra. They said that Jehangir Tareen also backed Taimur Jhagra’s nomination.

Taimur’s uncle Iftikhar Jhagra had also joined PTI briefly, but later returned to his old party PPP. “He is dreaming of becoming chief minister in case the PTI swept the polls. This is not possible but he would get a powerful ministry if he and the party won election,” said a senior PTI member on condition of anonymity.

Maulana Amanullah Haqqani is expected to give tough time to the PTI candidate. He had won election from this constituency in 2008 and was made provincial minister. In 2013, he represented JUI-F only, but this time he will get the support of five religious-cum-political parties that formed MMA.

There are 76,565 votes in PK-73, including 42,576 male and 33,986 female ballots. In 2013, 61,408 votes were polled and the turnout was 43.26 percent