ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)while awarding party tickets for upcoming February 8 General Elections in Rawalpindi Division and Islamabad has preferred old faces on most of the seats with few exceptions.
Minimizing the role of former senator Chaudhry Tanveer Khan from Rawalpindi, the party has awarded only two tickets in his family unlike four tickets awarded to his family in last general elections of 2018, when he lost all the seats.
His son Danyal Chaudhary is awarded a party ticket from NA-57 where he will face Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed while the son of Tanveer’s sister in law Imran Ilyas Chaudhry is awarded a ticket from PP-11.
In a wise move, the party has awarded party tickets to former MNA Haji Pervaiz Khan from PP-19 and Sajjad Khan from PP-13 that will eventually help to unite the party vote bank as both were also in the run to get a ticket for National Assembly’s seat.
On the other side, the party ticket from the second seat of the Rawalpindi city NA-56 to the Muhammad Hanif Abbasi while the party tickets for PP-16 and PP-17 are given to Ziaullah Shah and Raja Hanif, who remained MPAs from these constituencies in the past.
After a decision to avoid contesting election by the Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, party has awarded the party ticket for NA-51 to Raja Usama Sarwar, the son of former senior provincial minister Punjab Raja Ashfaq Sarwar.
However, an ongoing vacuum in the constituency has paved a way for Bilal Yameen Satti, the son of the former MPA of old good days Col. Yameen Satti from PP-6 while the party ticket from the other provincial constituency PP-7 is given to Raja Sagheer Ahmed, who has a strong hold in the area and he won the general elections of 2018 as independent candidate and join ruling PTI but later become a turncoat and voted Hamza Shehbaz Sharif.
Raja Sagheer was disqualified by the Supreme Court but he remained successful to get back his seat in the by-elections. Awarding a ticket to him eventually ended the decade’s long electoral politics of Raja Zafar-ul-Haq as his son Raja Muhammad Ali was again refused a party ticket.
From Gujar Khan, Raja Javed Ikhlas has managed to get a party ticket. He remained district nazim Rawalpindi while he was elected in 2013 on PML-N ticket by defeating outgoing Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf but could not resist him in 2018 and lost the seat again.
The party tickets for provincial assembly in this constituency are given to Iftikhar Ahmed for PP-8 and Raja Shoukat Aziz Bhatti for PP-9. Mr. Bhatti is the son of former judge of the Lahore High Court Justice Aziz Bhatti while Iftikhar Ahmed belongs to a spiritual family of Gujar Khan.
Meanwhile, Malik Ibrar Ahmed, who is divisional president of the party has managed to get all three tickets of his constituency for his family as he himself is awarded ticket for NA-55, his brother Malik Iftikhar Ahmed for PP-14 and Malik Mansoor Afsar for PP-15.
On the other side, the party has balanced the loyalty and resources as it awarded a party ticket from NA-53 to its time tested candidate Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam but at the same time accommodated the owner of a private housing society Chaudhry Naeem Ijaz on PP-10.
PML-N while taking another move has made a seat adjustment in Taxila and kept the National Assembly seat for Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Provincial Assembly seat for his nephew Amar Siddique Khan of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party while awarding the ticket to Umer Farooq.
In Islamabad, the party has issued tickets to its previous candidates from NA-46 to Anjam Aqeel Khan and from NA-48 to Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry while the decision for NA-47 has yet to be made as a seat adjustment with IPP is also under consideration on this seat.
Sources said that the party wants to give a ticket to Shaikh Anser Aziz but IPP is pushing to accommodate its leader Amir Kiani on this seat however a final decision is awaited so far.
From District Attock, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed was awarded the National Assembly ticket to contest from NA-49 and Malik Sohail Khan from NA 50 and both are the former MNAs from the area.
For provincial assembly, the following candidates were awarded tickets in the constituency including PP-1 Jahangir Khanzada, PP-2 Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, PP-3 Huneed Akbar, PP-4 Sher Ali Khan and PP-5 Malik Aitebar.
From District Chakwal, the ticket of NA-58 was awarded to Maj (retd) Tahir Iqbal, and provincial tickets from PP-20 to Sultan Haider Al Khan and PP-21 to Tanvir Aslam Malik.
From District Talagang, the NA 59 ticket was awarded to Sardar Ghulam Abbas and PP 23 to Shehryar Malik while decision on PP-22 is yet awaited.
From District Jhelum, the party has only awarded tickets on two provincial assembly seats including PP-25 to Chaudhary Nadeem Khadim and PP-26 to Nasir Mahmood Lilla while rest of the constituencies of the provincial assembly and the national assembly are yet to be awaited.
Read more: General Elections 2024: PML-N unveils list of candidates for Islamabad, Punjab
