ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has finally joined electoral politics and become part of a system it had been campaigning against.

Dr Tahirul Qadri’s party has fielded Malik Nazar Abbas Kahawar as its candidate in a by-election for the PP-48 seat (Bhakkar). The seat fell vacant after the death of Najeeb Ullah Khan Niazi, a cousin of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who won the 2013 election as an independent candidate but later joined the PML-N.

Mr Kahawar was a candidate of the PML-Q in last year’s general elections and secured an insignificant number of votes.

Qadri’s party fields candidate for by-poll

On Oct 2, Dr Qadri announced that his party would take part in all upcoming national and local government elections. “From today onward, PAT will take part in electoral politics irrespective of whenever next elections are held. We will not leave the floor of parliament for looters and robbers and bring about change by becoming part of parliament,” he had said while addressing the participants of his party’s sit-in outside the Parliament House.

Interestingly, five of the seven candidates are independent.

Besides Mr Kahawar, the other candidate of a party is Hafiz Shehzad Sharif Chaudhry of Pakistan Falah Party, a political wing of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. ASWJ was a component of an electoral alliance, Muttahida Deeni Mahaz which was formed before the 2013 elections. But when a request was sent to the Election Commission for registration of the alliance, ASWJ was replaced with Pakistan Falah Party which had already been enlisted with the ECP as a political party.

In the 2008 elections, Shahbaz Sharif had been elected unopposed from PP-48 after ASWJ withdrew its candidate.

Polling for the Bhakkar seat will be held on Nov 29. The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 153,098 – 86,529 men and 66,569 women.

Mujahid Hussain, regional election commissioner of Sargodha, has been appointed as district returning officer and Abid Hussain, district election commissioner of Jhang, as returning officer.

Published in Dawn, November 21th, 2014