Second phase of LG polls: PTI candidates to face tough contest from opposition

PESHAWAR: The rising price-hike and the disagreements over the award of party tickets are the two main factors that are going to hurt the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the second phase of the local government election slated for March 31.

Though Prime Minister Imran Khan had tasked Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak with organizing the PTI and wooing the dissidents, the ground realities tell a different story.

The major opposition parties, which contested elections separately in the first phase, may field joint candidates against the ruling alliance particularly in Hazara and Malakand division to give it a tough time. Political pundits believed that the ruling alliance would face public anger over galloping price-hike and broken pledges.

The observers in Hazara and Malakand said that the ruling party still faced disagreements over the award of party tickets and some workers could contest the election in independent capacity.

A former PTI supporter, Mohammad Irshad, said the PTI had not learnt a lesson from the previous results and they repeated the same mistakes.

Quoting the PTI workers for expressing reservations over the allotment of the party ticket to the brother of the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said the workers in Swat had already objected to this decision.

The same is the case with Kalkot tehsil in Upper Dir district, where a PTI activist, Rahimullah, was demanding ticket but another worker, Irfan, could contest election as independent if the party allotted ticket to him.

In Shringal tehsil, Nawab Ali could contest election as independent if the PTI nominated Shakir, who was seeking party ticket, for the election.

The PTI workers in Barikot also expressed concern over the expected allotment of party ticket to the brother of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Housing Amjad Ali.

The activists in Babuzai tehsil also complained about the nomination of the brother-in-law of the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC) chairperson Fazal Hakeem. However, the situation in Kabal tehsil was stated to be normal in Murad Saeed’s constituency, where the workers had no reservations over the allotment of party ticket.

In Khwazakhela tehsil, the workers are divided over the allotment of tickets and their apprehensions could be noted on social media.

The PTI, which nominated Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak for reorganising the party and wooing the dissidents, said he would overcome the crisis and get required results in the second phase. But the observers said the workers were unhappy over the award of tickets and this could hurt the party.

On the other hand, the JUIF and PMLN could field joint candidates in Swat and Hazara for which they have finalised arrangements, said a local journalist Mohammad Qasim

He said if the PTI failed to overcome the internal crisis, its fate would not be different from that of the previous elections.

He argued that the prices of electricity had increased further and the same was the situation of price-hike. He observed that the “price-hike and internal crisis” were two main causes of PTI defeat in the first phase and both the factors still existed. There is a possibility that the JUIF may not field its candidates against the PMLN in the places in Hazara where the party had vote-bank. The PMLN would follow the same policy and would support the JUIF where Maulana had vote-bank.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and JUIF also have vote-bank in Chitral, where the JI MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar has won election from NA-1, while JUIF emerged victorious in PK-1.

It would be a “do and die” situation for both the religious parties in the two mountainous districts of Lower Chitral and Upper Chitral. The supporters of JI said their party concentrated on the constituencies where it had vote-bank and they would work for their nominees. The JI also has a strong vote-bank in Upper Dir and Lower Dir. However, in Lower Dir and Upper Dir, the real contest would be between JI and PPP.

In Swat, the main contest would be between ANP and PTI while in Malakand, the main contest would be among the candidates of PMLN, JUIF and PPP. The local observed the main contest would be between the major opponents in Swat.