Some highlights of the NA-4 Peshawar by-election

PESHAWAR:  The electorate in National Assembly-4 constituency will exercise the right to vote today in the by-poll which has acquired countrywide attention due to a number of reasons.

Some highlights of the NA-4 Peshawar by-election are as under: 

*    The seat fell vacant after the death of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker and former senior bureaucrat, Gulzar Khan on August 28.

*    The total registered voters are 3, 97,904, including 2,35,164 male and 1,62,740 women.

*    More than 80 percent of NA-4 is rural while the remaining include urban towns such as Kohat Road, Gulshan-i-Rahman, etc. The constituency’s population is more than 40 percent of the entire Peshawar district.

*    Main voting blocks in NA-4 are Badaber, Chamkani, Surizai, Urmar and suburbs of the Kohat Road.

*    Mohmand, Burki Urmar), Afridi, etc are the main tribes in NA-4 constituency.

*    A total of 14 candidates are contesting for the NA-4 seat.

*    No female candidate is contesting the by-election.

*   Late PTI MNA Gulzar Khan’s son, Asad Gulzar, is contesting on the ticket of Pakistan People’s Party.

*    Nasir Khan Musazai is the only candidate who has contested election for the National Assembly in the past. He is Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate for the seat.

*    Arbab Amir Ayub who is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf aspirant for NA-4 has served as Town-IV nazim in Peshawar in the past.

*    Arbab Amir Ayub’s brother Arbab Muhammad Zahir Khan had won the seat in 1990, 1993 and 1997 elections on the ticket of Awami National Party.

*  Khushdil Khan, who remained the deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, is now the ANP candidate. He contested the general elections in 2002, 2008 and 2013 but was successful only in 2008 ballot. Khushdil Khan has led the anti-Taliban lashkar in the past as well.

*    Two radical relgio-political parties, Milli Muslim League and Tehreek-e-Labaik, have also fielded candidates in the by-election.

*    Allama Shafiq Amini, a doctoral student at the Islamia College University, is the candidate of the Tehreek-e-Labaik.

*    Returning Officer declared the MML an outlawed party but was forced to apologise as he thought the party was not registered yet not banned.

*    The MML is using the portraits of the Jamatud Dawa founder Hafiz Saeed during the election campaign despite Election Commission’s warning to the candidates not to use his photographs.  

*    Former MPA and leader of Rah-e-Haq Party Ibrahim Qasmi is supporting the PML-N candidate.

Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party and Maulana Fazkur Rahman’s JUI-F are also backing the PML-N nominee. The latter actively took part in the PML-N campaign rallies.

*    Chiefs of all major political parties visited the constituency during the by-election campaign and addressed public meetings to garner support for respective candidates.  However, no central PML-N leader came while the top leadership of all other parties held public meetings.

*    For the first time a well-organized door-to-door campaign was run by women workers of various political parties.

*    Members of the women wings on the campaign trail strictly followed the local norms as they were seen wearing shuttlecock burqas due to the conservative nature of the constituency.

*    Biometric system will be introduced during the by-poll on a trial basis at 100 polling stations. The Election Commission staff has already demonstrated the Electronic Voting Machine functions at a special function arranged at the Peshawar Press Club.

*   Election Commission of Pakistan has deputed 269 presiding officers, 837 assistant presiding officers and 837 polling officers for the by-election. The Pakistan Army soldiers will assist the staff.

*    The Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Wasil Farooq Jan won the election for Nazim in Chamkani in 2002 and 2005.

*    After the delimitation of the NA-4 constituency, the JI under the MMA label and the ANP and PTI have won this seat.