Less then a month left in forthcoming general elections, various political parties have still not gained the momentum to bring out their workers for electioneering, which everyone witnessed during the previous elections. Certain major political parties, like Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is still not clear whether to take part in the elections or not. However, the party’s chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has declared the January 8 election as “fraud”. But despite that one thing is crystal clear that they would follow the phrase “An idle person always thinks of some mischief.”
Muttahida Majlas-i-Amal (MMA) once conglomerate of six parties seems disintegrated as Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), the major party in the alliance has decided to take part in the elections, whereas Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the second biggest party of MMA has made his mind to stay away from the elections. Both the heads of their parties have even expressed their anger over the decisions of ‘once companions now rivals’ over their decisions.
With such decisions, the fate of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) also hangs in a balance because most of the parties, who were strong allies of APDM, have decided to take part in the elections, whereas some others will stay away.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Awami National Party are presently hectically involved in election campaign asking their voters to come out on the election day, while their former partners Jamaat-e-Islami, Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party are trying to convince the voters not to take part in the elections. Benazir Bhutto, chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) said that they are taking part in the elections as a protest as they do not want to give free hand to their adversaries to grab the parliament and to run it for their own interest. JUI Chief Fazlur Rehman is also following the footsteps of Benazir Bhutto, saying that he could not allow the agents of United States to win the January 8 elections in their absence. He said that they are taking part in the elections to stop their way to parliament.
Awami National Party (ANP) on the other is still with the same old slogan that it would not allow anyone to snatch the rights of the Pukhtoons and will fight for their rights and issues of the province. It is believed that Jamaat voters will go against JUI and may vote for Muslim League (PML-N) or ANP.
On the other hand NWFP police have declared 181 polling stations in five Northern districts of the province as highly sensitive. As many as 1,640 polling stations will be set-up in Northern districts out of these 181 have been declared highly sensitive.
Meanwhile, sources in the election commission told this scribe that commission is considering the option to postpone the elections in the tribal areas as law and order situation in almost all the tribal agencies is not satisfactory. Taliban Commander Baitullah Mehsud is also opposing the election and told his supporters not to allow the voters to cast their vote. Maulana Mairajuddin, former MNA has been tasked by the federal government to convince him not to oppose the election. In Khyber Agency, Haji Mangal Bagh, commander of Lashkar-i-Islam has set his own conditions for the election campaign and casting of votes. He told the residents of the Khyber Agency that they would not hoist the flags of any political party and even the candidates have been threatened not to hold public meetings.
In Bajaur Agency, the residents claimed that it is completely under the control of Taliban, Levies forces have been withdrawn from their checkposts in various parts and political agent is virtually helpless in controlling the situation as he constituted many jirgas of the elders of the agency to hold talks with the Taliban, but failed. Almost all the candidates in Bajaur are unanimous that election should be postponed because the situation in the area is not favourable. Residents said that local Taliban leader Maulana Faqir Mohammad has also threatened the candidates to withdraw nomination papers. He also barred the candidates from electioneering in the areas, which falls under his control. The election staff is also reluctant to take their duties during the elections. Most of them have submitted their leave applications to avoid election duties.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman former opposition leader and secretary general of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) in a statement strongly opposed that Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has dissolved due to the differences of heads of two major parties, JUI and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
Though, his denial does not mean that the conglomerate of several religious parties is still intact. Qazi Hussain Ahmad has openly described his views; “the refusal of Maulana Fazlur Rehman to boycott the coming elections has literally broken the alliance.” He said that Maulana Fazlur Rehamn is equally responsible for strengthening the hands of President Musharraf. However, during his address to the Rawalpindi bar, he stopped the participants who were chanting slogans against Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Both Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmad are well aware that this time they would not succeed to get the clear majority in the forthcoming elections as they succeeded during the last elections. The provincial government of MMA in NWFP could not fulfill the promises they made before the last elections. People of the province, who were deceived during the last elections, would not go with them.
Meanwhile, 75 contestants have been declared eligible by the NWFP Election Commission to contest elections for four National Assembly seats and 226 candidates for 11 NWFP Assembly seats from the provincial metropolis. As for the National Assembly seats reserved for women from NWFP, 18 female candidates have qualified the requirements to contest the polls, 69 are in the run for provincial assembly seats reserved for women. After scrutiny of nomination papers, Returning Officer for NA-1, Additional District and Sessions Judge Naeem Iqbal, declared 23 candidates eligible for elections. Three candidates, including Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP), as well as two Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) candidates Bahrullah Khan and Haji Shabbir Ahmad Khan have filed nomination papers for the same constituency. Other prominent contestants for NA-1 seat include Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians’ (PPP-P) Syed Zahir Ali Shah, ANP’s Haroon Bilour, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam’s (JUI-F) Haji Abdul Jalil Jan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Haji Muhammad Afzal, JI’s Haji Dost Muhammad and PML-Q’s Muhammad Saeed Butt. Likewise, the Returning Officer for NA-2, Additional District and Sessions Judge Gohar Rahman Khan, has approved 19 contestants for elections. However, the returning officer rejected the candidature of Jehangir Rahman whose nomination papers lacked the documents that could prove the listing of his proposer and seconder in the voter-list. PPP’s Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan, JI’s Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khalil, JUI-F’s Maulana Rahmatullah, ANP’s Arbab Najeebullah Khan, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP)’s Arbab Mujeebur Rahman and defunct Sepah Sahaba Pakistan’s Ibrhim Khan Qasmi are some of the candidates for NA-2.
Returning Officer for NA-3, Additional District and Sessions Judge Jan Muhammad Khan, confirmed 18 applicants, including PPP’s Noor Alam Khan, PML-Q’s Muhammad Intikhab Khan, ANP’s Muhammad Hashim Babar, JI’s Advocate Israrullah, PML-N’s Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and JUI’s (Darkhasti group) Maulana Muhammad Shoaib. Around 15 hopefuls met the criteria to contest elections on NA-4. Some of them are PML-Q’s Engr Ameer Muqam, ANP’s Arbab Muhammad Zahir Khan, PML-N’s Engr Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, JI’s Sabir Hussain Awan and PPP’s Muhammad Azam Afridi.
For the seats reserved for women in the National Assembly from NWFP, the nomination papers of 18 female candidates were endorsed. They included Naeema Kishawar Khan, Farhana Mushtaq (wife of Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani), Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, PML-Q’s Nighat Yasmin Orakzai, PML-N’s Maryam Javed Gandapur, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Riffat Akbar Khan Swati, Nasreen Khattak, Malik Mehrunnisa Afridi, Asma Alamgir, Shazia Tehmas Khan and Bushra Gohar. For 11 NWFP Assembly seats in Peshawar, there are a total of 226 candidates, who have been finalised by the concerned returning officers. Twenty-three contenders for PF-1 (Peshawar-1), 17 for PF-2 (Peshawar-2), 18 for PF-3 (Peshawar-3), 26 for PF-4 (Peshawar-4), 31 for PF-5 (Peshawar-5), 23 for PF-6 (Peshawar-6), 16 for PF-7 (Peshawar-7), 18 for PF-18 (Peshawar-18), 15 each for PF-9 (Peshawar-9) and PF-10 Peshawar (10); and 24 for PF-11 (Peshawar-11). Sixty-nine candidates are in the run for reserved seats for women in the NWFP Assembly. Prominent among them are Zubaida Khatoon, Nighat Yasmin Orakzai, Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, Dr Simin Mahmud Jan, Maryam Jawaid Gandapur, Riffat Akbar Khan Swati, Nasreen Khattak, Malik Mehrunnisa Afridi and Yasmin Pir Muhammad Khan. For the provincial assembly seats reserved for non-Muslims, 22 candidates were declared eligible.
Political observers believed that the forthcoming elections will be the worst in the history of Pakistan, but it is believed that due to the political consciousness of the leadership of various parties, this would not happened.