Tehreek-e-Insaf’s senior leader Javed Hashmi is likely to withdraw his candidature from NA-48 if the decision to reject former president Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers is upheld by the Election Tribunal. Hashmi claims to have submitted his nomination papers in order to award an exemplary defeat to his rival Pervez Musharraf.
Sources claim that the decision regarding Javed Hashmi’s candidature from NA-48 will be made in the next two days. On Thursday, the Election Tribunal reserved its decision on an appeal filed by former president against rejection of his nomination papers. However, political pundits claim that even if the Election Tribunal allowed Musharraf to contest from NA-48, he would still focus on the NA-32 Chitral seat, where he enjoys considerable support.
In case Hashmi withdraws his candidature, PTI would have to choose a suitable candidate from a long list including Dr Israr Shah, Waseem Shahzad, Faisal Javid Khan, Adnan Randhawa and Amir Mughal.
In the absence of both Javed Hashmi and Mushrraf, tough competition is expected between JI candidate Mian Aslam and a PML candidate. Former PML-N MNA Anjum Aqeel and Islamabad High Court Bar former president Chaudhry Ashraf Gujjar are in the run for PML-N ticket.
NA-48 is one of the two constituencies of the federal capital. For May 11 elections, almost every party have fielded its candidates while a number of independent candidates are also in the race. However, there is no clear popularity of any particular party.
In 2002 general elections, JI’s Mian Aslam won this seat by defeating PPP’s heavy weight candidate Babar Awan. In 2008, Mian Aslam didn’t take part in the polls due to JI’s election boycott, which allowed PML-N’s Anjum Aqeel to win with a heavy margin.
This consistency consists of both urban and rural areas. According to observers, in urban areas, Mian Aslam enjoys larger support than other candidates.
PML-N’s Anjum Aqeel, who defeated Dr Syed Israr Shah of PPPP in 2008 polls, has lost his popularity to some extent in urban areas due to his alleged involvement in Rs 6 billion land fraud. However, belonging to the influential Khan Family of Golra, he still enjoys a large following in rural areas of the constituency.
Sources claim that PML-N leadership is considering not awarding their ticket for NA-48 to Anjum Aqeel. However, family sources of Anjum claimed that he has been given the green signal for ticket.
PPP has awarded its ticket to newcomer Faisal Sekhi Butt. Although, Faisal Butt is actively running his election campaign and enjoys support of youth, yet PPP’s history in this area does not bode well for Butt.