ISLAMABAD: The August 22 by-poll will be more a test case for Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) than other political outfits as being new to power politics it is undergoing the test of forming and running a ‘model’ government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which has come under media and opposition criticism.
Another interesting aspect of these by-polls is that due to intervening Ramazan and Eidul Fitr the by-polls have to be delayed by over one month of the legal sixty days and these will not be held after almost 100 days which usually is calculated as first psychological hurdle for any new government.
The party has to retain five National Assembly seats more than other political parties followed by two each by PML-N and JUI-F, one by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, one by PML-F and one by an independent (Jamshed Dasti) while remaining three are the seats on which polls could not be held on May 11 due to various reasons.
The ruling PML-N’s job is not too difficult as far as retaining its two seats both won and left by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif are concerned.
The task of retaining the seats left by PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Peshawar 1, Mianwali, Javed Hashmi NA 48, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Parwaiz Khattak NA 5 and provincial party president and Speaker PA Asad Qaiser NA 13 will not an easy one.
The reason being that while all the PTI seats have been won by party heavy weights the ticket holders in the by-polls will be either the off shoots of these heavy weights or at least light weights.
There is going to be a new political alignment for winning the by-polls in the first place.
PTI is going to get the vote support from its coalition partners, Jamaat-e-Islami, jamhoori Watan Party and Pakistan Jamhoori Ittehad (more known as Swabi ittehad) while the second big stakeholder JUI-F is engaged in talks on local levels with the former ruling Awami National Party.
PTI is expected to have a sway on seats it had won due to the support from its three partners while JUI-F is trying to find out new allies and may enter in seat adjustment with ANP.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s spokesman Jan Achakzai confirmed to this correspondent that both parties can cooperate on NA 1 (support ANP) and on NA 25 and NA 27 won and then left by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Internews
