In 2018 general election, PTI had made a clean sweep in Peshawar district
JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
A tough contest is expected among candidates of major political parties contesting the mayorship election in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), polling for which is going to be held on Sunday (Today).
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has set December 19 as the date for the first phase of local government elections in 17 districts.
According to ECP the LG polls for village councils, neighborhood councils and tehsil councils in 17 districts would be held in the first phase and the rest of 18 districts in the second phase.
The Peshawar mayorship, politically a very important seat for all major political parties, reactivated seasoned politicians of the province and their leadership in the center.
Except Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Jamat-i-Islami (JI), almost all other political parties have repeated the culture of hereditary politics while awarding tickets for the slot of Peshawar city mayorship.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have fielded their offspring for city mayor slot.
The PPP has fielded Arbab Zarak Khan, the son of senior PPP politicians, Arbab Alamgir and Asma Alamagir.
Zarik has lost the 2018 general election on KP assembly seat but fielded again for local body election in the provincial capital.
Earlier the ticket was awarded to Ziaullah Bangash. Zia was minister in PTI first term but quit its party and joined PPP after meeting Asif Ali Zardari. Sources said that the Arbab family had threatened senior leadership of the party over the issue of Zarik ticket for Peshawar mayorship.
Similarly, the JUI-F has fielded Haji Zubair Ali, son of senior politician Haji Ghulam Ali.
The father of Zubair, Gulam Ali has served the provincial capital as Nazim.
This ticket was also given to Khalid Waqar Chamkani, a senior member of the party but later he was forced to withdraw his nomination in favour of Zubair Ali.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has withdrawn its candidate Naikzada in favor of JUI-F candidate for the Peshawar city mayor.
The Awami National Party (ANP) has awarded the ticket to Sher Rehman for the slot. Political observers claimed that the party has not chosen a candidate from the workers of the party.
Critics say that ticket was given to Sher Rehman as he was very close to the notable Bilour family.
The Party members of the ANP consider that Mr Sher has very little chances to attract ANP vote bank in the provincial capital.
Rizwan Bangash, PTI candidate for the city mayor slot belong to Peshawar and served the party in the capacity of General Secretary for Peshawar Region.
A number of activists of PTI have also objected on Mr Rizwan as they said he originally hails from Orakzai district. But later the issue was resolved and the party decided Rizwan Bangash as its final candidate.
Almost all senior members of the party believe that Rizwan would win the election with sweeping votes as the party has awarded him ticket on merit.
The family of Rizwan has no political background but he has been associated with PTI for long and is known among the best workers of Imran Khan.
Like cantonment board elections, JI once again in a very weak position in the local body elections in Peshawar.
JI has fielded Bahrullah advocate who has very little chance to win the seat of city mayor.
Peshawar city is considered to be a stronghold of the PTI.
In the 2018 general election, PTI had made a clean sweep in the provincial metropolis by winning all five national assembly and 13 provincial assembly seats.
Similarly, PTI candidates in the provincial capital had secured the slots of district Nazim and Naib Nazim in the last local body polls elections.
However, PTI government economic policies, high prices of essential commodities and high ratio of current unemployment in the country may shrink the party vote bank in local body elections.
It is to note here that 15 candidates are in the running for the slot of Peshawar city mayorship scheduled for December 19 (today).
Besides, PTI, PPP, JI JUI-F ANP two other parties including Tehreek-e-Istiqlal and Rah-e-Haq party have also filed their candidates for Peshawar city mayorship.
Moreover, eight independent candidates are also in the run for the slot.
According to the ECP, there are 1918587 registered voters in Peshawar, male voters are 1078401 and female voters are 840186.
The ECP has set up around 1149 polling stations in Peshawar where more than 11,000 security personnel have been deployed.
