By-elections: five NA, four provincial assembly seats in KP likely to be keenly contested

A tough competition is expected among candidates of the ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Jamiate Ulema Islam-F, and Awami National Party on five national and four provincial assembly seats in the upcoming by-elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to be held on August 22.
According to the final list of contenders issued by Election Commission of Pakistan, JUI-F, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami-Fazl have fielded their candidates for that vacant constituencies, because of openly supporting three coalition parties in KP, include Jamaat-i-Islami, Qaumi Watan Party, and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), while a opposition parties, include ANP, PPP and JUI-F also forged a alliance for the upcoming by-polls.
Despite making forging alliance between opposition parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) is contesting against JUI-F in Dera Ismail Khan. A total of 61 candidates, including two women are in the run of five National Assembly seats, while 27 aspirants would contest from four provincial assembly seats. For which, the Election Commission would set up more 2,209 polling stations, and 310 of them have been identified as sensitive, with 345 as most sensitive. An ECP official said that the army will be deployed at the highly sensitive polling stations and possibly the sensitive polling stations as well.
For constituency NA-I Peshawar, about 12 aspirants are in the race, six for NA-5 Nowshera, 10 NA-13, Swabi, 17 NA-25 Dera Ismail Khan-cum-Tank and 16 NA-27 Lakki Marwat, while eight candidates will contest in PK-23 Mardan, four in PK-27 Mardan, 10 in PK-42 Hangu and five in PK-70 Bannu.
An important seat of national assembly NA-I was fallen vacant by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan with securing 90,000 votes in general elections by beating the senior ANP leader and three-time winner candidate on this constituency Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, by obtaining only 24,468 votes. A neck to neck competition is expected on NA-I Peshawar in the upcoming by-polls, as ANP again fielded Ghulam Ahmad Bilour against the PTI nominee Gul Badshah.
Samad Mursaleen, an ideological worker of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf was ignored in awarding ticket for by-polls, then he has decided to fight in election as independently from NA-I Peshawar. Besides, ANP candidate Ghulam Bilour, Samad Mursaleem will also face ex-MPA Ibrahim Qasmi and member of a leading political family Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah in the forthcoming by-elections on NA-I Peshawar. However, the ruling PTI and ANP have already claiming for wining over this important constituency NA-I.
The ANP, Ghulam Bilour has emerged a stronger candidate after making opposition parties alliance on this constituency include PPP and JUI-F. In the present circumstance, the major political parties Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz has also a solid vote bank in NA-1, which might be supported the ANP candidate Ghulam Bilour. Likewise, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf candidate Gul Badhshah would have a slight edge over his opponent candidate due to greater support from alliance partners parties, include JI, QWP and AJIP.
In May 11 elections, the NA-5 seat had won by incumbent KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. He, however, later vacated it and retained his provincial assembly seat Khattak had received 70,053 votes against his opponent ANP's Daud Khattak who had got 21,436 votes.
In by-polls, Daud Khattak, is once again in the arena and will face PTI's Imran Khattak, who is son-in-law of CM Pervez Khattak. Earlier, the PPP had nominated its former MNA Tariq Khattak on NA-5, Nowshera, but later withdrew him in favour of Daud Khattak.
Likewise, NA-13 Swabi seat had won by Asad Qaisar of PTI. He, however, retained the KP Assembly seat and vacated NA-13. This time, the PTI has awarded ticket to Qaisar's brother, Aqibullah, for the by-election, who will face JUI-F's Attaul Haq, who has the support of ANP.
The two seats NA-25 and NA-27 were vacated by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. In the scheduled by-polls, Fazl's son Asad Mehmood and brother Attaur Rehman will this time try their luck respectively on JUI-F tickets. The PPP's candidate and former deputy speaker of National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi and PTI's Dawar Khan Kundi are contesting by-election on NA-25. Amirullah is the candidate of PTI on NA-27.
Similarly, PTI candidate Umar Farooq and ANP's Ahmad Khan Bahadur are locked in a tough contest on PK-23 Mardan. Though Ikramullah Shahid, the candidate of Muttahida Deeni Mahaz and former deputy speaker of the provincial assembly, and independent candidates are also in the run, the contest would be mainly between the PTI and ANP nominees. Former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti had won from both PK-23 and NA-9 in Mardan in the May 11 general election on the ticket of the ANP. He kept the National Assembly seat and vacated PK-23.
PK-42 Hangu seat fell vacant after the killing of Fareed Khan, who had won as independent candidate but later joined PTI, while seat of PK-70 Bannu was vacated by former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani of JUI-F. Shah Faisal Khan, brother of slain member Fareed Khan, is also in the field as independent candidate on PK-42, Hangu seat, while Maulana Mohammad Hussain Jalali of JUI-F is his main rival.
Likewise, bother of the slain member, Jamshed Khan, is now contesting election on PK-27 seat as independent candidate, whereas former provincial minister Fazal Rabbani of JI and Zakaullah of JUI-F are also in the run. The QWP is backing the independent candidate Jamshed Khan.