KOHAT, Dec 23: A tough contest is expected on the NA-14 constituency between some former and incumbent PPP leaders who are taking part in the elections as independent candidates.

Similarly, a tough competition is being anticipated on three NWFP assembly seats between old faces and a few new entrants who are trying to turn the tide in their favour by utilising all available means.

In the PF-38 constituency, the campaign of former chief justice of Peshawar High Court Syed Ibne Ali is being run by his two sons. One of them is the additional session’s judge of Charsadda, but currently on a one-month leave, while the other is a doctor.

But the contestants, including Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, his main rival and his nephew did not file any formal complaint against him in this regard due to his very weak position. His daughter-in-law, a judge, is also busy in electioneering, former MPA Syed Qalb-i-Hassan told Dawn on Sunday.

The PPP ticket holder, Abdur Rauf, who is also the president of Kohat Bar Association, had become target of criticism by the lawyer community who want him to boycott elections in protest against the forced retirement of superior courts judges.

Former law minister Syed Iftikhar Hussain Gilani is contesting as an independent candidate like Malik Asad and both were being considered as favourites. The latter refused the PPP ticket to keep his alliance with an independent candidate who is in the run from PF-38 Kohat-II.

Former PML-N MNA Javed Ibraheem Paracha who is taking part in elections since 1970 when he was a student leader is also hopeful of giving tough time to his rivals although his popularity graph is coming down drastically. In 1997 he won the NA-14 seat with around 47,000 votes, but in 2002, he was able to get 2,600 votes only. But he had not lost his hopes.

In PF-37 ANP’s Shaukat Habib, a former MPA, was struggling to defeat Amjid Afridi (independent), in PF-38 former ANP MPA Syed Qalb-e-Hassan (expelled from party after selling his vote in senate elections) was leading with a slight margin from ANP’s Shahbaz Gul Shinwari whereas Khan Shad Mohammad Khan (independent), a former candidate of PPP-Sherpao, was sure about his success against Jamaat-i-Islami’s candidate Dr Iqbal Fana.

The response of the people, however, indicates a much low turnout this time as compared to the last election held in 2002 as the people feel more disappointed and betrayed by former parliamentarians, reveals a survey conducted by Dawn.

The record of 2002 elections shows that only 31.40 per cent voters cast their votes for the NA-14 seat in which Mufti Ibrar Sultan, an unheard name at that time, won the seat mainly because of the US attack on Afghanistan.

Similarly, in three constituencies of the NWFP assembly the percentage of votes cast remained as 34.07 per cent in PF-37, 35.63 per cent in PF-38 and 31.93 per cent in PF-39, and with an extremely low turn out of 28.97 per cent in six frontier regions which had a single seat of NA-47-Tribal Area-XII.

The people interviewed in the survey criticised the leadership for not raising voice for the provision of gas to rural areas of Kohat from the local oil and gas fields from where the commercial supply to Punjab had started four years back.

They said that if Kohat district gets only 2.5 per cent of its share from the royalty it could bring about a revolution in development sectors such as, education, health, roads, provision of potable water, creation of job opportunities through industrialisation which so far remained neglected due to shortage of resources.