ISLAMABAD: After ceding one of the three seats of National Assembly in Islamabad to an ally, PML-N on Thursday awarded tickets for the two constituencies to old and defeated faces.

Following the award of tickets for NA-46 and NA-48 and a setback of seat adjustment in NA-47, the prevailing situation is said to be unconducive for PML-N in the capital which remained a stronghold of the PTI after the party made a clean sweep in 2018 elections and grabbed all three seats of the lower house of parliament.

According to a notification issued by the PML-N, Anjum Aqeel Khan has been given ticket for NA-46 and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry for NA-48.

Interestingly, the party on Wednesday issued a list of candidates for NA seats in which there was no mention of Anjum Aqeel but another PML-N aspirant Zeeshan Ali Naqvi was on the top of the list from NA-46.

When contacted, PML-N leader Irfan Siddiqui confirmed that the party had awarded tickets to Anjum Aqeel and Tariq Fazal.

PLM-N’s local candidates recently met a setback when their leadership made a seat adjustment agreement with newly formed Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) comprising mostly disgruntled leaders of PTI. Under the reported agreement, IPP’s Amir Kiani will be the joint candidate of both the parties from NA-47 and therefore Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has to cede his stronghold and was compelled to contest elections from NA-48 from where he had already faced a defeat in 2018 polls when he stood on the third position in terms of the number of secured votes against PTI’s winner Khurram Shahzad Nawaz.

In addition to former MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan, who lost two consecutive general elections on this seat, and one local government election, former Islamabad deputy mayor Zeeshan Naqvi and PML-N Japan President Malik Noor were vying for NA-46.

Observers believed that Zeeshan Naqvi had better prospects of winning the election due to his “personal relations not only within the party ranks and voters in his constituency but also with those in the opposition”.

According to the list issued on Wednesday, the PML-N had chosen Zeeshan Naqvi for the slot but it seemed the party changed its decision at the eleventh hour and replaced him with Anjum Aqeel.

The party’s lack of interest in capital’s three constituencies is evident from the fact that no one has so far contacted other candidates of the PML-N to withdraw their nomination papers or announce support to the party’s candidates.

Talking to Dawn, Zeeshan Ali Naqvi confirmed that he had so far not been called by the party to withdraw his nomination papers.

Past result 2013

NA-46 (formerly NA-48): Makhdoom Javed Hashmi won this seat on PTI’s ticket with 73,692 votes while PML-N candidate Anjum Aqeel Khan secured 48,073. As Mr Hashmi also vacated this seat, another PTI candidate Asad Umar contested by-election and grabbed the seat with 48,073 votes while PML-N candidate Ashraf Gujjar received 41,186 votes.

Results of 2018

NA-46 (formerly NA-54): In this constituency PTI leader Asad Umar became laurel by securing 56,945 votes, while Anjum Aqeel of PML-N got 32,991 votes and Raja Imran Ashraf stood on fifth position with only 4,019 votes.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2024