No seat for PML-N in tribal election

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has failed to win any seat in Saturday’s election for the provincial assembly seats in the tribal districts.

The party had fielded five candidates in Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber and North Waziristan, out of the 16 seats in seven tribal districts and former Frontier Regions.

Though PML-N has very limited vote-bank in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the party was hopeful of gaining ground in the merged tribal districts after introducing reforms that led to the merger of former tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

But the current situation when the party has been passing through a crisis-like situation and even senior party leaders did not find an opportunity to address any public meeting or rally in connection with the election campaign, losing of the party candidates was not unexpected.

PML-N candidate Israruddin and Nizamuddin, sons of former MNA Shahabuddin, were contesting on PK-100 and PK-101 in Bajaur, respectively, while Tahir Akbar Khan contested PK-104, Mohmand, Saida Jan, PK-106, Khyber and Muhammad Nazir, PK-111, North Waziristan.

The party candidates could not even get a third or fourth position.

However, keeping in view Shahabuddin Khan’s struggle for reforms in former tribal areas, it was expected that the constituents would at least not ignore his services and would cast their votes in favour of his sons.

The Khan from Pashat area of Bajaur, Shahabuddin, has a good reputation not only in his area but throughout the tribal districts and has been very vocal against the injustices, especially of the administration in Bajaur tribal district even at the time when the region was under political administration, which had unlimited powers.

On PK-100, his son Israruddin bagged just 5,139 votes against 12,951 of the PTI winner and Jamaat-e-Islami’s runner-up and remained on the fifth position while his other son Nizamuddin, contesting on PK-101, got 930 votes against PTI nominee who was declared winner with 12,194 votes and JI’s 10468 votes and remained on the 8th position. Similar was the position of other PML-N candidates who got fewer votes compared to rivals.