PTI suffers major setback in elections of tribal districts

PESHAWAR: Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has suffered a major setback in the elections of newly merged tribal districts of provincial assembly held on Saturday, which has created a rift among the party high-ups.

Independent candidates dominated the historical elections by grabbing seven seats. According to unofficial results, the PTI got only five seats out of 15, announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan. None of the party leader is ready to accept the responsibility of major defeat and they are blaming each other in private conversations. Reliable sources confirmed that PTI MNAs had influenced the parliamentary board to issue tickets to their near- and dear-ones; otherwise, they will not cooperate and quit the party. The PTI workers were ignored in the process and they revolted against the party decision and decided to contest the election as independent candidates.

The electoral strategy had been handled by Governor Shah Farman, Religious Affairs Minister Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and tribal MNAs, a party leader told this scribe on condition of anonymity.

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, while talking to this scribe, said elections were conducted in free, fair and peaceful manner without any interference of the provincial government. “These were historical elections and now the elected representatives are the members of provincial assembly.

“We have a majority vote bank in tribal areas, but unfortunately some of the party workers violated the party discipline and contested the election independently against the party ticket-holders, which divided our vote bank.

“Now the party has decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings against them and we are going to issue show-cause notices to them,” he added.

Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai told The News that the PTI is a strong party in tribal districts, as it has won six seats, out of 12, in general elections, held in 2018. He said some of the party workers contested elections against the PTI candidates, which is the main cause of party’s defeat in few constituencies.

Now the party has decided to take action against all those who violated the party discipline, he said. “The main factor and reason behind the PTI defeat was the presence of two or more candidates from same seat,” he added.

According to unofficial results, the PTI won five seats out of 15, announced by the Election Commission including PK-100 Bajur-1 Anwer Zeb, PK-101 Bajaur-2 Ajmal Khan, PK-109 Khuram-2 Said Iqbal Mian, PK-111 North Waziristan-1 Muhammad Iqbal Khan, and PK-114 South Waziristan-2 Naseerullah.

The PTI parliamentary committee awarded tickets to 16 candidates including PK-100 Bajaur-1 to Anwer Zeb, PK-101 Bajaur-2 to Ajmal Khan, PK-102 Bajaur-3 to Hamidur Rehman, PK-103 Mohmand-1 Rahim Shah, PK-104 Mohmand-2 Muhammad Israr, PK-105-Khyber-1 Shahid Hussain, PK-106 Khyber-2 Amir Muhammad Khan Afridi, PK-107 Khyber-3 Muhammad Zubair, PK-108 Kurram-1 Shahid Khan, PK-109 Kurram-2 Said Iqbal Mian, PK-110 Orakzai Shoaib Hussain, PK-111 North Waziristan-1 Muhammad Iqbal Khan, PK-112 North Waziristan-2 Iqbal Khan, PK-113 South Waziristan-1 Asghar Khan, PK-114 South Waziristan-2 Naseerullah, and PK-115 Frontier Regions to Abidur Rehman.