Daily Times

With approaching of July 20, election activities for three seats of the provincial assembly gained momentum and the candidates are busy in arranging huge public gatherings and corner meetings to compete in Khyber district. As per the election commission, Khyber district has three provincial assembly seats that are up for grab. The seat PK-105 consists of Zakha Khel, Shinwari, Shelmani and Mulagoris areas; PK-106 includes tribes of Koki Khel, Janda Khel, Kamr Khel and Malikdin Khel, and PK-107 contains areas of Kamber Khel, Sepah, Aka Khel and Shlober.

Following abolishing of century old black law, Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) and merging of the ex-tribal regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year, it is for the first time ever that residents of the merged tribal districts got their representation in the provincial assembly of KP.The merged tribal regions have received 16 seats in the KP assembly. According to election commission, registered voters in PK-105 are 150152 and in PK-106 are 134775. In the same way total registered voters in PK-107 are 205442. Total of 110 and 91 polling stations respectively have been formulated in PK-105 and PK- 106 constituencies and in the same way 142 polling stations have been set up in PK-107 constituency. A total of 59 candidates including a female one have filed their nomination for the election in Khyber district. It comprising 22 contenders of PK-105 and 19 ,18 candidates of PK-106 and PK- 107 respectively including ticket holders’ candidates of main stream political parties of the country Including Awami National Party(ANP) Jamaat-e-Islami(JI)Pakistan People Party(PPP) Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Qumi Watan Party (QWP),Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) etc, beside independent contesters have flexed their muscles to contest the upcoming provincial assembly election. When the senior journalist and former President of Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) Ibrahim Shinwari was asked for his comment on overall election scenario in Khyber district said after East and West Pakistan units election in era of Ayub Khan, it was for the first time that the tribesmen would elect their representatives and therefore they considered an important event and were keenly interested to be part of the upcoming election process. He maintained that main stream political parties have fielded their candidates and hopefully high turnout was expected and female voters needed to be encouraged to cast their votes. He added that some problems of campaigning had been reported in Bazaar,Zakha Khel area but generally the election would be conducted peacefully as sustainable peace had been restored in the Khyber. In his analysis PTI candidate in PK-107 have in strong position while in PK-106 Bilawal Afridi son of ex-Member National Assembly, Shahjee Gul as independent candidate was a visible threat to other competitors. In his view situation of PK-105 was unclear and tough competition was expected in the candidates. Executive member of Pakistan Minority Alliance and President Pakistan ex-Fata Minority Alliance, Arshad Masseh expressed his dissatisfaction over the procedure, adopted by political parties while granting tickets to minorities on reserved seats and said majority minority ticket holders were unrepresentative of the community and had nothing to work for the welfare of minorities. He said that there were nearly 3000 votes (male-female) of Christian and Sikh communities in the district who were still deprived of their basic needs. He maintained that the minority would vote PTI candidates of PK-105, PK-106 and PK-107 in the upcoming provincial assembly election. A learned figure and journalist Sher Alam Shinwari while commenting on the conducting of provincial assembly election in ex-tribal regions said that the activity would not abruptly resolve miseries of the decades ignored tribesmen but would enhance political awareness among the inhabitants of the merged tribal districts that was a success itself. The depressed people would get their voice in form of their representatives in provincial assembly who would convoy their problems to the rulers for solution.