Nawaz Sharif will contest from Lahore’s NA-130 against PTI’s Yasmin Rashid, PPP’s Iqbal Ahmad
n Hamza Shehbaz to contest elections from Lahore’s NA-118 against PTI’s Aliya Hamaz n Maryam Nawaz to run for national, provincial seats from Lahore n MQM-P names Dr Farooq Sattar for NA-241, NA-244 n Mustafa Kamal to face Shehbaz Sharif in Karachi’s NA-242.

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD/KARACHI  -  Major political parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Paki­stan (MQM-P) have announced their candidates for the national and pro­vincial assemblies constituencies for the general election, taking place on February 8. 

In Lahore, out of total 14 National Assembly seats the PML-N has field­ed 12 candidates whereas out of La­hore’s 30 Punjab Assembly seats the PML-N fielded 29 candidates to con­test upcoming general elections. 

PML-N’s surprising move to refrain from nominating candidates for two National Assembly seats and one pro­vincial assembly from its electroral stronghold Lahore was influenced by the strategy of seat adjustment with Istehkam-e-Pakistan (IPP). 

Pakistan Muslim League (N) has made seat adjustments in 3 con­stituencies with (IPP) in Lahore. Un­der this adopted electroral strategy PML-N has refrained from fielding its candidates from two national and one provincial assembly constituen­cies of the provincial capital. In this regard PML-N has opted to keep the NA 117 seat vacant for IPP President Abdul Aleem Khan and NA 128 for Awn Chaudhry. From NA 117 Aleem Khan will face PPP’s candidate Syed Asif Akhtar Hashmi while PTI nomi­nation from this constituency was still pending. From NA 128 IPP lead­er Aoon Chaudhry will be competing against both PTI and PPP as for NA 128 PTI has fielded Salman Akram Raja whereas PPP has nominat­ed Aurangzeb Burki. Addition­ally, PML-N has also left a pro­vincial constituency PP-149 of Lahore vacant for Aleem Khan. So far, Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf has not been able to select a suitable candidate against its former leader from the seat of PP-149. 

According to the details, PML-N Quaid and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will con­test from NA 130 constituency against PTI candidate Dr Yas­min Rashid and PPP’s Iqbal Ah­mad Khan. PML-N’s party presi­dent Shehbaz Sharif will contest from national assembly seat NA-123 against PTI’s Afzaal Azeem Pahat and PPP’s Zia ul Haq and for Lahore’s provincial assembly seats PP-158 he will be facing Yousaf Ali of PTI and from PP-164PTI’s Yousaf Mayo will be challenging him. Ham­za Shehbaz will participate in general elections from NA 118 National Assembly constituen­cy against Aliya Hamaz of PTI and PPP’s Shahid Abbas mean­while from PP-147 Punjab as­sembly seat he will be facing PTI’s Muhammad Khan Madni. Party’s chief organiser Maryam Nawaz had also opted to run for both national and provin­cial assemblies seats from La­hore. For national assembly seat she will contest general election from NA 119 against PPP’s If­tikhar Shahid, from this con­stituency PTI is still waiting for the verdict on petition filed by Sanam Javed, while for Punjab Assembly PP-159 constituency Maryam will face Mehar Shara­fat Ali of PTI. 

Muslim League (N) has also resolved the ticket issue among two of it’s stalwarts Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Shiekh Rohail Asghar. The issue was solved after for­mer Member of National As­sembly Sohail Shaukat Butt de­cided to withdraw nomination papers from Constituency NA-120. Butt will now contest the election from the Provincial As­sembly Constituency PP 151.

The senior leader Sheikh Ro­hail Asghar has been awarded with the party ticket from NA-121 he will be facing WasimQa­dir of PTI and PPP’s Iftikhar Shahid. On the other hand Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has been ac­commodated from NA-120 by PML-N, he will be contest­ing election against PPP’s Mu­nir Ahmad while PTI decision for candidates from NA120 was still pending. 

Former federal minister Khwaja Saad Rafique will con­test election from NA 122 against PTI’s legal expert Sardar Latif Khosa and PPP’s Ch Atif. Likewise, from NA 124 PML-N’s Rana Mubashar Iqbal will go one on one with ZameerJhe­du as PPP didn’t field its candi­date from this consistency. For NA-125 PTI’s nomination was still pending while PML-N’s Mu­hammad Afzal and PPP’s Ab­dul Ghaffar has been finalised by their parties to contest elec­tion from NA-125. Saiful Malook Khokar of PML-N, Malik Kara­mat Khokar of PTI and Amjad Ali from PPP will be compet­ing with against each other for NA 126 constituency. Chairman PPP Bilwal Bhutto Zardari will contest election against Atta Ul­lah Tarar of PML-N and PTI’s Zaheer Abbas Khokar. From NA129 PML-N’s Muhammad Nauman will compete against PTI’s candidates Mian Azhar and PPP’s Iqbal Ahmad Khan. 

At a time when beleaguered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is fighting a legal battle in the apex court to regain its elector­al symbol ‘bat’, the party of for­mer prime minister Imran Khan on Friday finalised tickets of its candidates for the February 8 elections. The party officially shared separate lists of its can­didates finalised for the elec­tions of National and Punjab as­semblies. The decision of tickets has been kept pending for some constituencies. While the law­yers’ community has succeeded to get a major share of tickets, there are surprises for many as far as the distribution of tick­ets is concerned. PTI has award­ed tickets to many new entrants besides accommodating party’s old faces as well as electables belonging to the known politi­cal families of the country.

Interestingly, PTI has not made any seat adjustments with its old ally and chief of Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. PTI has awarded a tick­et to Shehryar Riaz for NA (Na­tional Assembly)-56 (Rawal­pindi-V) from where Rashid is contesting the election. Similar­ly, Ms Seemabia Tahir has been given ticket for NA-57 (Rawal­pindi-VI) from where ex-PTI MNA Sheikh Rashid Safique, the nephew of Rashid, is contest­ing. For other constituencies of Rawalpindi, Tariq Aziz Bhat­ti Advocate, Col (retd) Amjad Sabir, Malik Taimoor Masood, and Raja Basharat have been awarded tickets for NA- 52, 53, 54 and 55 respectively

Senior PTI leader and former federal minister Shafqat Mah­mood announced to withdraw his nomination papers from NA-128 (Lahore) and PP170 af­ter he was denied a party tick­et. PTI awarded its ticket to se­nior lawyer Salman Akram Raja for this NA constituency. For La­hore’s other constituencies. Ali­ya Hamza has been awarded ticket for NA-118, Wasim Qa­dir for NA-121, Latif Khosa for NA-122, Afzal Azeem Pahat Ad­vocate for NA-123, Zameer Jed­hu Advocate for NA-124, Malik Karamat Khokhar for NA-126, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar for NA-127, Mian Azhar for NA-129 and imprisoned Dr Yasmin Rashid for NA-130. For the three con­stituencies of Islamabad (NA-46, 47 & 48), tickets have been awarded to Amir Masood Mu­ghal, Shoaib Shaheen and Ali Bukhari respectively.