PTI legislators kin among winners

PESHAWAR: Scions of some of the known political families won positions of district nazims in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday while differences in different parties resulted in defeat of their candidates in certain districts.
PML-N leader Amir Muqam’s son, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s brother, late PML leader Syed Ali Shah’s son, and the kith and kin of lawmakers of different parties were among those elected as district and tehsil nazims.
In Peshawar, Arbab Mohammad Asim of the PTI was elected district nazim while Syed Qasim Ali Shah, son of late Muslim Leaguer Syed Ali Shah as naib nazim.
Senior members of the party termed Arbab Asim’s election a ‘great setback’ to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, saying he and nine out of 10 PTI Members Provincial Assembly from Peshawar had initially proposed and pledged support to Younas Zaheer, the young general secretary of PTI Peshawar chapter.
Arbab Asim, according to PTI sources, was close to former provincial minister for Mines and Minerals, Ziaullah Afridi, now in custody of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on corruption charges.
Some of the party sources said senior PTI leader Saifullah Niazi played a role in nominating Arbab Asim for the district nazim slot.
They also shared with The News the pictures of Arbab Asim to prove that he participated in rallies that supporters of Ziaullah Afridi had organized in Peshawar against his arrest. At these protests, slogans were chanted against the chief minister and he was accused of getting Ziaullah Afridi arrested.
The PTI provincial acting president Fazal Khan said Younas Zaheer couldn’t become the district nazim due to his dual nationality.
Out of four towns in Peshawar, PTI’s candidates were elected nazims and naib nazims in three.
Zahid Nadeem and Shoaib Bangash were elected nazim and naib nazim for Town-1, Faridullah Khan and Israfeel Khan for Town-II, and Arbab Mohammad Ali and Wahab Khalil for Town-III.
Liaqat Khattak, brother of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, was elected district nazim of Nowshera while Ashfaq Ahmad Khan of the same party was chosen as naib nazim.
Senior members of the PTI told The News that most of the party representatives had raised this issue on various forums and expressed their reservations over Liaqat Khattak’s nomination but nobody listened to them.
“Most of Pervez Khattak’s family members have already been elected MPAs, MNAs and senators on general and reserved seats of the party. Despite strong opposition, he managed to get his brother elected as district nazim,” a senior PTI member told The News while wishing anonymity.
PTI MNA for Tank district, Dawar Khan Kundi helped his younger brother, Mustafa Kundi to become district nazim on the party ticket. PTI’s Aftab Ahmad was elected as naib nazim.
In Dera Ismail Khan, PTI’s Azizullah Khan was elected district nazim and Ismail Baloch as naib nazim.
Azizullah Khan is cousin of PTI MPA Samiullah Alizai. Similarly, Omar Amin, who was elected Tehsil nazim, is the brother of PTI Minister for Revenue Ali Amin Gandapur, while naib nazim Rehan Khan is his personal friend.
PTI suffered huge loss in Abbottabad where the disgruntled old stalwart Sardar Sher Bahadar won election of the district nazim while Shaukat Tanoli was was elected naib nazim.
Sher Bahadur had been the PTI district president for past 17 years but was denied the party ticket first for contesting election and then for the district nazim. He had won election as independent candidate.
He defeated Ali Khan Jadoon, son of former Federal Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon while Shaukat Tanoli won against Sardar Waqar Nabi, son of ex-provincial minister Sardar Ghulam Nabi.
Both of them defeated PTI candidates.
During the local government elections, Sher Bahadur had defeated PTI’s candidate Sardar Umair, brother-in-law of PTI leader and Minister for Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani.
He later re-joined the PTI with the hope that the party leadership would have learnt a lesson from past mistakes and would give him ticket for the district nazim election.
“The PTI MPAs were supporting the party candidates while old party workers were backing Sher Bahadur and Shaukat Tanoli,” a PTI leader in Abbottabad said.
PTI also suffered defeat in the neighbouring Mansehra district, where the party candidate, Shafaat Ali, lost the election for the district nazim by only with four votes. The four votes polled to PML-N candidate Syed Ghulam were of the PTI members.
According to PTI leadership, they lost due to Shehryar Khan, nephew of PTI leader, Senator Azam Swati.
Shehryar had demanded the PTI ticket for the district nazim, but the party gave it to an old stalwart Shafaat Ali. It annoyed Shehryar and he along with four other PTI members decided to support the PML-N nominee.
PTI’s candidate polled 40 while PML-N’s nominee secured 45 votes and was declared successful.
The PTI members said it could create serious trouble for Senator Azam Swati as he didn’t play an active role to stop his nephew from working against the party candidate. Azam Swati had left the JUI-F and joined PTI.
However, in Haripur district, PTI candidates easily won nazim and naib nazim seats.
Adil Islam, cousin of PTI MPA Faisal Zaman, was elected district nazim while Agha Shabbir won the election of naib nazim.
Attaur Rahman of the PTI was elected district nazim in Battagram district. The PTI leadership also claimed to have won the district nazim seat of the mountainous and under-developed Torghar district, where Noor Mohamamd was elected as district nazim.
The PTI candidate, Dr Omar was elected district nazim in Karak district.
In Charsadda district, despite facing serious internal crisis the PTI’ candidate Fahad Riaz Azam Khan succeeded in winning election of district nazim. He was candidate of three-party alliance comprised PTI, JI and QWP.