PTI loses both seats contested by incumbent governor in July 25 polls 

PESHAWAR: In a short span of only a week, the Awami National Party (ANP) has managed to win two seats in the provincial capital from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The PTI lost both the seats on which incumbent Governor Shah Farman had contested general polls in July.

The ANP was supported by all the major political parties in the opposition to clinch the seat from the ruling party. ANP candidate Salahuddin Momand defeated Zulfiqar Khan, a nominee of PTI and brother of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman.

Shah Farman had contested the general election on two seats and won from PK-71 Peshawar only. He lost the other seat to ANP's Khushdil Khan by a narrow margin. He vacated the second seat after his appointment as governor and his brother lost it too on Sunday.

“There were many factors including the so far poor performance of the ruling party that helped ANP win the bypolls. All the parties also supported our candidate for which we are thankful to them,” ANP leader and losing candidate from NA-29 in the last general election, Arbab Kamal Ahmad, told The News.

He said the people of the area were not happy with the PTI and its candidates. "Every male and female voter showed their support to ANP in the constituency of the incumbent governor," he added.

PTI which had won 12 out of 14 provincial assembly seats from Peshawar city and district in the July 25 general elections lost both the by-elections. ANP had won one provincial seat in general elections through Khushdil Khan. The election was postponed in PK-78 Peshawar after the death of Harøon Bilour in a suicide attack.

ANP candidate Samar Haroon Bilour defeated PTI nominee Mohammad Irfan in PK-78 Peshawar in the by-polls on October 14. The party had fielded Samar Haroon, the widow of Haroon Bilour, to run for PK-78 after her husband was martyred along with 22 others in a suicide attack days before the general election.

Except the PTI, the major political parties had withdrawn candidates in favour of Samar Haroon as a goodwill gesture. Samar Haroon is the first woman in 16 years to have won a general seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the first ever from Peshawar.

The last time a woman won a seat through direct elections was Ghazala Habib Tanoli, who was elected on ticket of the then Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao, now renamed as Qaumi Watan Party, from Mansehra district.

Before that Begum Nasim Wali Khan, the widow of noted Pakhtun nationalist leader Abdul Wali Khan, was elected as an MNA in the aborted 1977 general election. She was also elected as an MPA in subsequent polls.

The Bilour family lost two key members in suicide attacks in the last few years. Haroon Bilour fell victim to a suicide attack during his election rally near Kohati Gate in July while his father and the then senior minister in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Bashir Ahmad Bilour was assassinated in a suicide blast in December 2012.