After reviving the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) sans former ally Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman is now focusing on mustering the support of influential politicians from various regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
As a latest example, Fazl won the support of former federal and provincial minister Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, who belongs to the influential Nawabzadgaan of the Hoti family in Mardan.
Over the last decade, Hoti has been hopping parties without permanently settling into one. Before joining the JUI-F, he had pledged allegiance to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, and was nominated as the party’s central senior vice president. However, he failed to adjust in the party, and announced resignation in August this year.
Prior to joining the PTI, Hoti stayed in the Awami National Party (ANP) for a couple of years, and won the 2008 election to the National Assembly on ANP’s ticket. He was inducted in the federal cabinet, but later entered into rifts with the party’s central and provincial leadership. He remained a dissident before completing one year in ANP’s parliamentary party.
Nonetheless, he remained attached to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for two years, and was twice elected on its ticket to the provincial assembly and became a minister before promoting to the rank of PPP’s provincial president. He was ousted from the PPP in early 2003.
Though terms and conditions between Hoti and Fazl are yet to be made public, but sources said that Hoti was demanding JUI-F tickets for one national and two provincial assembly seats – one each for himself, his son, and his brother-in-law – in their native town Mardan. On all three constituencies, the Nawabzadgaan would face no other than ANP candidates, including KP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.
Whatever may be the outcome of the upcoming general elections, but Fazl has made his party capable of giving tough time to the ANP and the PPP by taking Hoti on board. At the same time, Fazl’s decision could force three main parties – ANP, PPP and the JI – of entering into an alliance or seat-to-seat adjustment, mainly in order to counter the JUI-F.
Elsewhere in the province, Fazl could face problems in his native southern districts, after the PPP’s decision to nominate Anwar Saifullah Khan as its provincial president. In addition, Faisal Karim Khan Kundi is also reluctant to leave open the field for Fazl in his native Dera Ismael Khan district.
