PK-71 Peshawar by-election

PTI dissident Dildar Khan facilitated Salahuddin’s win, Zulfiqar’s defeat

By Rahimullah Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership should be doing some soul-searching as to how it lost the provincial assembly seat, PK-71 which it had easily won in the July 25 general election when Governor Shah Farman was its candidate.

The winner, Salahuddin Momand, was a PTI activist until 2017 when he quit after being refused the party ticket to contest the NA-4 Peshawar by-election. The PTI ticket was given to Arbab Aamir Ayub, who won the bypolls decisively defeating candidates from the ANP, MMA, PPP and other parties.

It is said Salahuddin Momand was promised that he will be given the ANP ticket at an opportune time. He wasn’t given the ticket to contest the general election for the National Assembly or the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Finally, he was fielded as the ANP candidate for the October 14 by-election from PK-71. As luck would have it, all opposition parties not only backed his candidature but some of their leaders also campaigned for him. The result was a setback for the PTI.

Shah Farman had bagged more than 17,000 votes to win the PK-71 on July 25. The runner-up Sifatullah of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was far behind and so were the other candidates from the ANP, MMA and PPP.

When Shah Farman was made the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, he vacated the seat and got the PTI ticket for his brother Zulfiqar Khan to contest the by-election. When a senior PTI leader was asked as to why Zulfiqar Khan was preferred over the other aspirants for the party ticket, he said there were so many applicants that it wasn’t possible to select a consensus candidate. He claimed the other aspirants offered to withdraw in favour of the Governor’s brother and not for any other party candidate.

However, one aspirant Dildar Khan refused to withdraw his candidature. The young man from a middle class family with an MBA degree received a boost when the youth in Matani area started campaigning for him. He had been a PTI activist and was getting a positive response from the young men in Matani union council and adjoining area. Certain PTI activists believe Dildar Khan would have stepped down if Governor Shah Farman had asked him to withdraw in his brother’s favour.

When approached for his comment, the Governor claimed he stayed away from the by-election. “I go by the book. I didn’t ask Dildar Khan to withdraw from the contest,” he insisted.Dildar Khan polled 5,409 votes to facilitate Salahuddin Momand’s victory and Zulfiqar Khan’s defeat. Salahuddin Momand secured 11,416 votes against Zulfiqar Khan’s 10,004 to emerge victorious by a margin of 1412 votes.

Salahuddin Momand had quit the PTI earlier in 2017 over the denial of ticket and there was no way he could have been brought back to the party. However, it seems enough efforts weren’t made to stop him from quitting the PTI. He had always aspired to contest for an assembly seat and he saw better prospects by joining the ANP.

As for Dildar Khan, many PTI workers supported him as they weren’t happy with the award of ticket to the Governor’s brother Zulfiqar Khan. The emotional and uncompromising PTI activists were ready to defy the party discipline over the issue of awarding the party ticket.

The recent price hike, certain controversial PTI government decisions and the choice of Prime Minister Imran Khan while appointing party leaders to high positions all played a role in reducing the share of party vote in the by-elections.

Another factor was the inability and unwillingness of PTI lawmakers and leaders to campaign for Zulfiqar Khan in the PK-71 by-election. Except Nasir Khan Musazai, one of the PTI MNAs from Peshawar district, nobody else campaigned for the Governor’s brother. In comparison, certain local PML-N, JUI-F and PPP leaders spoke at election meetings in support of the ANP candidate, Salahuddin Momand, and mobilized their workers to vote in the by-election.