PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians, which the former chief minister Pervez Khattak formed just six months before the general elections, could win only one provincial assembly seat from Peshawar in the Feb 8 polls.

PTI-P chairman Pervez Khattak along with his family members and top leadership was routed in the electoral fray. In most cases, they were defeated with huge margins mostly by independent candidates fielded by PTI. The PTI-P top leaders were active members of PTI before forming the new party.

The results of the Thursday’s polls were shocking for the two former chief ministers, Pervez Khattak and Mahmood Khan, as both of them lost all their seats in their home districts of Nowshera and Swat, respectively.

In Nowshera, Mr Khattak’s other family members were also defeated by the PTI-backed candidates. Pervez Khattak and his son-in-law, Imran Khattak contested elections on NA-33 and NA-34, respectively. However, PTI’s nominated independent candidates Syed Shah Ahad Ali Shah defeated Pervez Khattak, while Imran Khattak lost to Zulfikar Ali Shah.

Khattak’s party won only one PA seat in Peshawar

Similarly, Mr Khattak contested on two seats of the provincial assembly, including PK-87 and PK-88, but lost to PTI’s Khaliqur Rehman and Ashfaq Ahmed.

Mr Khattak’s two sons – Mohammad Ibrahim Khattak and Mohammad Ismail Khattak – contested elections on PK-85 and PK-86, but like their father, the sons were also defeated by PTI-backed candidates Zar Alam Khan and Mohammad Idrees Khattak.

PTI-P vice-chairman and former chief minister Mahmood Khan was also defeated on PK-10 and NA-4 in his hometown. On the NA seat, he was defeated by PTI-backed Ali Shah Advocate, while on PK-10 he was defeated by PTI’s Mohammad Naeem.

Mahmood Khan had won elections on the PTI ticket in 2013 and 2018 elections. Prior to joining PTI, he was little known to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as he only remained a nazim of Kharerai union council in Matta tehsil. He joined PTI in 2012.

Other prominent leaders of PTI-P, who failed to get a slot in the assemblies, include former ministers Ishtiaq Urmer and Ziaullah Bangash. Both of them had also won their seats in 2013 and 2018 general elections on PTI ticket.

Despite boastful claims that he would be the next chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak’s PTI-P had not attracted significant number of electables to make the party’s chairman a potential candidate for the coveted slot.

Be it a public jalsa or a private party meeting, the PTI-P leader had claimed that he was the next chief minister, and a perception was created that he had strong support of the powers that be.

However, in reality, the PTI-P was short of the candidates to be fielded on all the national and provincial assembly seats in KP. It had fielded its candidates on only 17 NA seats out of 45, and 73 out of 115 PA seats. Among them only Arbab Waseem secured a seat from the provincial capital.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2024