Two PTM leaders make it to NA

PESHAWAR: Two main leaders of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), who contested the general elections for the National Assembly from their native North and South Waziristan tribal districts, have won their seats.

The winners were Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, who were among the founders of the PTM and had addressed its gatherings all over Pakistan. The PTM emerged as a Pashtun rights-based movement after the assassination of Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake police encounter allegedly masterminded by senior cop Rao Anwar in Karachi.

Mohsin Dawar, who contested the election on NA-48 in North Waziristan, secured 16,496 votes and was declared successful.

Thirty-seven candidates, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Malik Aurangzeb Khan and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s (MMA) Mufti Misbahuddin contested the election in the constituency. The runner-up Mufti Misbahuddin secured 15,352 votes while Malik Aurangzeb got 10,369. The candidates of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S) had filed nomination papers to contest for NA-48, but some didn’t run an active election campaign.

The Awami National Party (ANP) did not field candidate against Mohsin Dawar. The real contest was between Mohsin Dawar and the MMA and PTI candidates.

Ali Wazir won the National Assembly seat in South Waziristan. He was pitted against 27 candidates, including five ticket holders of the PPP, PML-N, MMA, ANP and JUI-S. The PkMAP, which doesn’t have any real vote-bank in former Fata, did not field its candidate in NA-50.

Ali Wazir bagged an impressive 23,530 votes to easily defeat his rivals. The runner-up Syed Tariq Gillani secured 8,250. Maulana Mehmood Alam of the MMA got third place with 7,515 votes.

Another PTM leader Abdullah Nangyal Bhittani, who contested the election for NA-51 Frontier Region, got only 5,157 votes. The winner was the MMA candidate Maulana Abdul Shakoor who polled 21,896 votes. The PTI candidate Qaiser Jamal Afridi, who had won the seat in the 2013 general elections, received 18,689 votes. The ANP and PkMAP had also fielded candidates on NA-51, but they make any impact on the voters.

The voter turnout in NA-48 was 23 percent, NA-50 had 33 percent and in NA-51 it was 41.9 percent.

The News contacted the PTM leader Fazal Khan to ask about the future status of these MNA-elect in the social movement.

He said first it depended on these former core committee members whether they were interested in re-joining the movement core committee or not. Fazal Khan said that if they were interested in re-joining the core committee than a meeting of the committee would be convened to take a decision on their future in the PTM.