CHITRAL: All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) becomes the first political party to field a woman candidate on party ticket from Chitral as Taqdira Ajmal filed her nomination papers both for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and National Assembly seats as its candidate.

Hailing from Bumburate valley and married in Islamabad, Ms Ajmal is said to be a covering candidate for the party chief retired General Pervez Musharraf and principal candidate for the sole provincial assembly constituency of PK-1.

Party sources told this scribe that in case Mr Musharraf did not return to the country, she was most likely to be elevated as principal candidate for NA-1.

Taqdira Ajmal submits papers for NA-1, PK-1

Mrs Ajmal heads the women wing of the party on national level and has been in touch with the party workers and the people in her native district, they said, adding that she had grown as afamiliar name in the district despite her absence from the area.

The sources said that she was one of the strong candidates having a fair chance of success as the people of Chitral liked Mr Musharraf for initiating the Lowari tunnel project giving the area an all-weather road.

In the last general elections, the candidates of the party had returned to both the national and provincial assemblies as the people voted for them, but this time Mr Musharraf’s popularity had dwindled due to completion of the project by PML-N government which allocated about 80 per cent of the funds during the last five years.

Talking to this scribe, Mrs Ajmal claimed that Mr Musharraf still wielded respect of the people of Chitral for his unforgettable service to this area in the form of Lowari tunnel project as the area would remain cut off from the rest of the country for five months of the winter season.

She said that APML was still a dominant party in Chitral and its candidates would win the July 25 general elections. She said that the party received the highest number of applications for election ticket from Chitral, which showed its popularity.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2018