Ji Shakes Hand With Pro-Musharraf Forces in Buner, Pakistan

Khalid Kheshgi

 

PESHAWAR: Nine candidates including a Pakistan Peoples Party’s dissident remained in the contest for NA-28 Buner on the final day of withdrawal of nomination papers Friday while the Jamiat Ulema Islam-F got the MMA electoral symbol for bye-elections to be held on December 28.

       

Amongst the nine candidates six are fielded by different political parties while three are contesting bye elections as independent including Barrister Gohar Ali Khan who contest 2008 general elections on the PPPP ticket. Awami National Party awarded ticket to Istiqbal Khan, son of ANP late MNA Abdul Mateen Khan; the Jamaat-e-Islami, which had boycotted from 2008 general elections, fielded former Speaker NWFP Assembly Bakht Jehan Khan while Jamiat Ulema Islam-F nominated Maulana Fazl Ghafoor for NA-28 Buner; Pakistan Awami Party’s chief Fanoos Gujar, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Ali Sher Khan and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan’s Maulana Amin Hamid are in the run for the lone National Assembly seat from Buner district. Two independent candidates Naushad Khan and Syed Amir Zeb remained in the contest.

 

Jamiat Ulema Islam-F and Jamaat-e-Islami, major components in the Muttahida Majlis Amal MMA, had applied for ‘Book’ symbol, however, the JUI-F succeeded in obtaining the MMA symbol. The JI candidate Bakht Jehan Khan opted for ‘wall clock’ as electoral symbol in the upcoming bye-elections in Buner.

 

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao had already announced withdrawal of its candidates in support of Bakht Jehan Khan, which would apparently strengthened the JI candidate. However, the tripartite alliance amongst the JI, PML-Q and Sherpao group has also weakened Jamaat-e-Islami stand against General Musharraf regime as the PML-Q and PPP-Sherpao were the staunch supporters of former military dictator.

 

Talking to The News by phone, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that he had full support of the local organization of the party as they were not in electoral alliance with the Awami National Party but are coalition partners in the Frontier province and central government. He said that he had applied for party ticket but the central leadership did not want to annoy ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan at the moment. Gohar Ali Khan had contest 2008 general elections on the PPPP ticket and secured second position by obtaining 19756 votes against ANP’s Abdul Mateen Khan’s 22, 601 votes.

Gohar Ali would contest the bye-election on ‘kettle’ as electoral symbol. He claimed that he was hopeful to win the elections as he had strong vote bank in the constituency and support of local organizations of the party. However, he admitted that due to security reasons and cool weather, turn out in the December 28 elections would be quite low.

 

Ends