TAXILA/ATTOCK: A total of 47 people are hoping to contest one National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats from the Hassanabdal tehsil, according to documents submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Attock district’s National Assembly constituencies were reduced from three to two after the last census and delimitation process, because of which pundits have predicted a tight race between the PML-N and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

There are 15 aspiring candidates for Hassanabdal’s only National Assembly seat, NA-55 (Attock-I). The constituency also includes some rural parts of the Attock and Hazro tehsils.

Candidates who submitted their nomination papers to the returning officer, Additional Sessions Judge Ishfaq Rana, include former federal minister and outgoing MNA Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, PTI leader and former district nazim retired Maj Tahir Sadiq, former state minister and PPP leader Sardar Saleem Haider, former state minister Taimoor Aslam, former MNA Zain Ellahi, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Hafiz Saeed Ahmed, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan leader Mohammad Hafeezullah Khan, Communist Party member Jameel Ahmed Malik, Sheikh Salmar Sarwar, Siraj Gull, Zulfiqar Hayat, Asif Iqbal, Dr Mohammad Naeem and Malik Ameer Afzal.

The leading candidates in this constituency are expected to be PML-N’s Sheikh Aftab Ahmed and PTI’s Mr Sadiq.

Nine people are hoping to contest the provincial assembly constituency PP-2 (Attock-II), which consists of Hazro and some rural parts of Hassanabdal tehsil.

Candidates who submitted their nomination papers to returning officer senior civil judge (admin) Umer Rasheed include outgoing PML-N MPA and former provincial minister Jehangir Khanzada, Qazi Ahemd Akbar from the PTI, Ahmed Khanzada from the PPP and independent candidates Changhaiz Khan, Liaquat Mehmood, Shoukat Hayat, Qammarul Islam Meer, Syed Tahir Shah and Naveed Zamarud Khan.

In PP-2, the PPP and PML-N candidates are cousins who live together.

The constituency with the highest number of aspiring candidates in the district, however, is PP-3 (Attock-III), with 23.

The constituency, which consists of Hazro and some rural parts of Hassanabdal tehsil, is being contested by PTI’s Mr Sadiq, PPP’s Mr Haider and Mr Aslam, who are also National Assembly candidates, as well as outgoing MPA Shahwaiz Khan, Mr Elahi, former MPA Asif Ali Malik, former MPA Sardar Mohammad Ali Khan, former tehsil nazim Shafqat Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, Sardar Mumtaz Hussain, Nasir Khan, Shahryar Khan, TLP’s Sardar Rehat Ali Khan, Imran Ali Khan from the Justice and Democratic Party, PPP’s Riaz Khan, Zufliqar Hayat, Mohammad Arshad, retired Brig Asim Nawaz Khan, Sardar Faraz Afzal Khan, Maulana Tajuddin, Abdullah Khan, Ayaz Khan and Akbar Khan Tanoli.

Political observers have attributed the high number of candidates to the submission of one or two covering candidates in support of the main contenders.

They believe that the number of candidates will be reduced by more than half after the scrutiny and finalisation of nomination papers.

However, a tight race is expected between the PML-N and PTI in all three constituencies. Pundits say that after Mr Sadiq joined the PTI, the party has come to dominate various rural areas in these constituencies, where Mr Sadiq has his own vote bank regardless of party affiliation.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018