MARDAN, May 5: At least 13 candidates, including blood relatives like father and son, are contesting elections on different national and provincial assembly seats of Mardan city on the tickets of different political parties.

According to the final list, 39 candidates will fight it out for the three National Assembly seats and 132 candidates for the eight provincial assembly seats in the elections.

Former federal minister and senior vice-president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti is contesting elections for NA-9, Mardan-I, his son Umar Farooq Khan Hoti for PK-23, Mardan-I, and cousin Arsala Khan Hoti for PK-24, Mardan-II, on the PML-N tickets, while his another cousin Nawabzada Abdul Qadir Khan is the nominee of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians for NA-10, Mardan-III. Similarly, former PPP MNA Haji Khanzada Khan is running for NA-10, Mardan-II and his son Zeeshan Khanzada for PK-25, Mardan-III, on the PPP tickets. Besides, Mr Khanzada’s nephew Mohammad Atif is contesting the elections for PK-30, Mardan-VIII, on the ticket of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf.

Khani Dada Khan is the nominee of Awami National Party for PK-25, Mardan-III, while his nephew Bakhtawar Khan is his rival candidate in the same constituency on the PML-N ticket.

The Jamaat-i-Islami candidates Gul Nawaz Khan and his nephew Mohammad Ibrahim Buland are running for NA-11, Mardan-III, and PK-29, Mardan-VII, respectively.

Likewise, the ticket-holder of All Pakistan Muslim League Sama Aryani advocate is in the run for NA-9, Mardan-I. His nephew Yousaf Shah Aryani advocate is confronting him in the same constituency as an independent candidate.

Kifayatullah, an educated resident of Mardan, told this correspondent that these candidates had been deceiving people by contesting elections on the tickets of different political parties.

He said that these blood relatives facing each other had been making tall claims of protecting the national interests, providing employment and free health facilities and education to people, but such people always forgot their promises after winning elections. They are just serving their own vested interests, he said. Hayat Mohammad Khan, a social worker, lamented that a few families had apparently established their monopoly over the politics of Pakistan and only faces were changed after every general election in the country.

He said that a common worker or activist of a political party could not get a prominent slot in his party owing to the inheritance-based political party system in the country. He lamented that party tickets were being awarded only to influential party leaders or their sons and other family members.— Correspondent