HARIPUR: Eight women are among 60 candidates, who have filed nomination papers for the only National Assembly and three provincial assembly seats in Haripur district.

The final lists of candidates displayed by the respective returning officers showed that a total of 16 candidates, including covering ones, have filed papers for NA-17. Among them are Irum Fatima of the ANP and Shaista Naz of the PPP. Ms Fatima, a social activist and chief executive of a local NGO, had contested elections in the same constituency in 2013 and got 3,675 votes.

Shaista Naz, a health professional, is testing her luck for the first time as the PPP has no male candidate to contest from the constituency.

Other candidates include former MNA Babar Nawaz Khan of the PML-N, who is contesting NA-17 elections for the second consecutive time. Omar Ayub Khan of the PTI will be in the electoral arena here for the fourth time.

The PK-40 Haripur I constituency has 14 candidates, including PTI leader and former CM adviser Akbar Ayub Khan, former minister Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan, and PPP leader and former caretaker minister Ejaz Ali Khan Durrani. The rest are newcomers or covering candidates.

Razia Jafri of the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen and Furwya Shaheen filed nomination papers from PK-40.

In PK-41 Haripur II, two of the 12 candidates are women, including Saira Syed and Farzana Rehan. Both women are new faces but it’s not clear yet which party they belong to.

Old faces among candidates are former PML-N MNA and three-time MPA Sardar Mushtaq Khan and former PML-N MPA Raja Faisal Zaman, while Arshad Ayub Khan, elder brother of Akbar Ayub Khan, the candidate from PK-40, and first cousin of Omar Ayub Khan, is contesting election from the constituency for the first time.

In PK-42 Haripur III, 14 candidates are in the field. Former PTI MPA Faisal Zaman, Sahibzada Qasim Shah, nephew of Pir Sabir Shah and ANP’s Shaukat Mashwani are the old faces, while former district councillor and PTI nominee Malik Tahir Iqbal andformer QWP MPA Gohar Nawaz Khan are new entrants to electoral arena in the constituency.

Former PPP MPA Dr Faiza Rasheed andSaima Khalid are among candidates. Ms Rasheed, a gynecologist by profession, and longtime affiliate of PPP, had served as MPA from 2008 to 2013. She had contested elections in NA-17 and PK-40 in 2013 elections but bagged 2,488 votes from NA-17 and 538 votes from PK- 40.

BETTER REPORTING STRESSED: The speakers at an event here stressed the need for better quality of reporting. The call was given during a reference held for Khanzada Amjad, founder and former president of Haripur Union of Journalists and Haripur Press Club. He passed away few months ago after protracted illness.

The speakers paid tribute to him for efforts to highlight problems of local residents through journalistic work.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2018