PPP wins only one NA, four provincial seats

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) faced disappointing results in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as only one candidate for the National Assembly from Kurram tribal district Sajid Hussain Turi and four candidates of the provincial assembly could win the election.

According to unofficial results of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Sajid Hussain Turi was elected MNA and former MPAs Sahibzada Sanaullah and Bacha Salih from Dir district and Sher Azam Wazir from Bannu and Ahmad Karim Kundi were elected MPAs.

The central and provincial leaders had claimed to form the next government in the centre and province before and after nominating candidates for the national and provincial assemblies. They claimed to have nominated party’s candidates on most of the national and provincial assembly constituencies.

Senior PPP leaders including Arbab Alamgir Khan, Najmuddin Khan, Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, Rahimdad Khan, Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Humayun Khan, Faisal Karim Kundi, and Akhundzada Chitan were prominent and senior leaders who faced defeat at the hands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates.

The workers held the central and provincial leaders responsible for the crushing defeat. They recalled that a so-called parliamentary board was constituted to award tickets without consulting the workers. They believed that both the central and provincial leaders had distributed tickets on own sweet wills without following any rules, policy or merit.

Instead of reorganising and making proper preparation for the election, the board members allotted two, three and four tickets to influential families within the party, which further enhanced the sense of deprivation among the workers.

A senior member recalled that Arbab Alamgir, Asma Alamgir, Arbab Zarak of the same family were nominated for two National Assembly constituencies NA-27, NA-30 and PK-74.

Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti contested the election on two seats. Ziaullah Afridi, Kiramatullah Khan, Najmuddin Khan, Faisal Karim Kundi were allotted two constituencies each.

The workers suggested forming a committee and probing as to why PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was nominated for NA-8, Malakand, without any proper homework.

They said it was also the responsibility of the central party leaders to take effective measures to reorganise the party instead of taking cosmetic decisions for facing the future challenges.

The workers said the popularity graph of the party could be judged from the extremely low votes, which the PPP candidates bagged in the recent elections.