PESHAWAR, Aug 25: About 80 candidates filed nomination papers on Saturday to contest the polls for the four National Assembly and 11 NWFP Assembly seats of Peshawar District constituencies.

Only two ex-parliamentarians — Arbab Zahir of ANP and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra of PML-N —  submitted their nominations as most of the former law makers either could not qualify to contest the General Elections owing to graduation condition or fielded their close relatives on different seats.

Similarly, only six ex-MPAs — Iftikhar Jhagra, Bashir Bilour, Haji Adeel, Hidayatullah Chamkani, Ayub Shah and Arbab Ayub Jan — filed papers.

Around 20 candidates, till the filing of this report, had filed papers for the National Assembly seats in provincial capital: For NA-1 (Peshawar I), papers were filed by Bashir Bilour, his son Usman Bilour, NWFP PML-N Secretary-General Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra, Advocate Mohammad Khurshed of PPP, Moazam Butt of PML-QA, Shabir Ahmad Khan of MMA and a leader of PPP (Sherpao), Aurangzaib Mohmand.

Arbab Alamgir, son of former NWFP chief minister Arbab Jehangir, who recently quit the ANP and joined the People’s Party Parliamentarians, filed his papers for NA-2 (Peshawar II). His opponent candidates are Khalid Ayub of the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) and Kashif Azam, an independent candidate.

Seven aspirants, who filed papers for NA-3 (Peshawar III), are Kiramatullah Chagermati of PPP, Hidayatullah Khan Gara of PPP (Sherpao), Arbab Ayub Jan of National Awami Party Pakistan, Sardar Alam of MMA, two independent candidates Mohammad Naeem and Advocate Akhter Ali Khan and Saleem Akber of Pakistan Awami Party.

Only three candidates — Arbab Zahir of ANP, Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra of PML-N and Sabir Hussain of Muttahida Mujlis-i-Amal (MMA)—  filed papers for NA-4 (Peshawar IV).

About 60 nomination papers were submitted for the 11 NWFP Assembly seats: 10 contestant filed papers for PF-1, six for PF-2, nine for PF-3, eight for PF-4, eight for PF-5, five for PF-6, two for PF-7, three for PF-8 and three each for PF-9, PF-10 and PF-11.

Candidates of all the major political parties and alliances including PPP, ANP, PML-N, PML-QA and MMA fielded will fight for the 11 provincial assembly seats.

NWFP PML-QA chief Saleem Saifullah Khan will contest for PF-4 while ex-provincial assembly speaker Hidayatullah Chamkani and former deputy speaker Haji Adeel of ANP will fight for PF-11 and PF-6, respectively. Jabran Adeel, son of Haji Adeel, also filed papers as covering a candidate for his father.

Bashir Bilour and Usman Bilour also filed papers; one of them will contest polls for NA-1 and the other for PF-3. Ex-provincial minister Iftikhar Jhagra of PPP will contest for PF-9.  

Only two women aspirants — Advocate Ghalba Khursheed and Yasmeen Shirazi— will contest polls for PF-3 on general seats quota.