Former KP governors failed to make it to assemblies

PESHAWAR: Both the former governors, retired Lt Gen Iftikhar Hussain Shah and Engineer Shaukatullah Khan, who contested the election from Kohat and Bajaur, respectively, were defeated.

Iftikhar Hussain Shah, who remained a powerful governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the rule of General Pervez Musharraf, contested for a provincial assembly seat in his hometown Kohat as an independent candidate. He lost to Ziaullah Bangash, the PTI candidate who was re-elected from this constituency.

Ziaullah Bangash got 20,999 votes while Iftikhar Hussain received 14,717. MMA's Syed Qalb-e-Hassan polled 10,876 votes. The former governor had joined the PTI and applied for the party ticket to contest election from Kohat. He was in competition for the PTI ticket with Ziaullah Bangash for the provincial seat and with Shahryar Afridi for the National Assembly seat. Both Ziaullah Bangash and Shahryar Afridi got the ticket and won their respective seats.

Shaukatullah, who remained governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the PPP rule when Asif Ali Zardari was the President of Pakistan, contested election from the National constituency, NA-40, from his native Bajaur tribal district. He was placed third with 16,845 votes. This was his family seat that he had won in the past as well.

However, he and the 13 other candidates in the constituency lost to PTI's Gul Dad Khan, who polled 34,616 votes. Other losing candidates were Jamaat-i-Islami's Sardar Khan, who was the runner-up with 17,850 votes, ANP's Gul Afzal Khan obtaining 14,304 and former MNA Akhundzada Chattan getting 12,906 votes.

After holding the high and powerful position of governor of the province, the two had decided to contest for assembly seats. Even if they had won their seats, Iftikhar Hussain Shah had no chance of becoming the chief minister and Shaukatullah couldn't have become the prime minister. In fact, they had no chance of even becoming ministers in the incoming PTI government.