HAFIZABAD-Hafizabad district is smallest district of the province having a population of 1.157 million with registered votes of 684,447 including 299,685 of women.
During 2013 election, the district was allotted two seats of National Assembly and three of Punjab Assembly but after the delimitation, one of the NA seats has been deleted but three PA seats have been retained. All the contestants have started flexing their muscles and the electioneering has got further momentum
PP-69 consists of Kaleke Mandi, Vanike Trara and Jalalpur Bhattian area having registered voters 225,141 including 96,826 women. In this constituency, 17 candidates are contesting including former MNA Mian Shahid Hussain Bhatti of PML-N, Rai Safdar Ali of PPP, Muhammad Mamoon Tarar of PTI, Ex-PML-N MPA Ch Muhammad Asadullah of Tehrik Labbaik Ya-Rasoolullah Pakistan, Azam Ali of Tehrik Allah-o-Akbar, Imdadullah of Tehrik Labbaik, Mian Fazal Ahmad Qadri of All Pakistan Muslim League and independents Jahanghir Ali, Zulfiqar Ali, Riaz Ali, Tariq Mahmood Janjoa, Ali Kamran, Umar Farooq, Muhammad Ubaidullah, Muhammad Murad Asghar and Mazhar Hussain (most of the independents are covering candidates).
In this constituency tough contests would be among Ch. Asadullah, a former PML-N MPA who parted ways with his party recently when he was refused party ticket, former PML-N MNA who was elected on PML-N ticket from previously called NA-103 and Muhammad Mamoon Tarar of PTI. The PPP candidate Rai Safdar Ali has no footing in this constituency. The candidate of PML-N Mian Shahid Hussain Bhatti and Tehrik Labbaik candidate Ch Asadullah Arain have the support of majority of people as they had worked hard for the development in this area and executed numerous public welfare projects particularly in the provision of healthcare and promotion of education in the remote area during the past five years.
Both the candidates, who contested 2013 general election jointly and won MNA and MPA slot respectively, have equal chances of their success. They have the support of different traders and industrialists and Bhatti, Arain, Kharl and other Biradaris.
The candidate of PTI Muhammad Maoon Tarar belongs to a very influential and political family of Kolo Tarar and is a close relative of Saira Afzal Tarar but he is an arch rival of Saira Tarar and both belong to the same family and same village (Kolo Tarar). His grandfather late Mian Saifullah Tarar had been MNA and MPA twice and his great grandfather Khan Bahadur Ataullah Khan Tarar was first Muslim Member from the undivided Punjab in the Viceroy Council of undivided India. He has good footing in the Tarar and Bhatti clans. He can make setback in the constituency.
PP-70 Hafizabad-II consists of Hafizabad city, Saddar and Kassoki areas having registered votes of 236,460 including 104,771 of women. In this constituency 11 candidates are contesting including ex-PML-N MPA Malik Fiaz Ahmad Awan of PTI, ex-MPA Dr Muzaffar Ali Sheikh of PML-N, Syed Waseem-ul-Hassan Naqvi of Tehrik Labbaik Pakistan, Hafeezullah of Allah-o-Akbar Tehrik, Ghulam Abbas of Aam Log Party Pakistan, Fakhar Abbas of PPP and independents Tanvir Sajid, Jhangir Ali, Ch. Muhammad Asadullah, Rana Shafqat Javed and Usman Khizar Mangat.
Malik Fayyaz Ahmad, who parted ways with the PML-N as the party had refused to award him ticket, and ex-MPA Dr Muzaffar Ali Sheikh, a renowned physician and surgeon, are most popular figures of city. Both belong to city and they have deep affiliation with social, political, religious, industrialists and trading community. During his tenure of MPA/Parliamentary Secretary for Health in 2002 Dr Muzaffar Ali Sheikh had executed many public welfare projects including establishment of filtration plants, Stadium and Gymnasium, full fledge Hepatitis Centre, upgraded King Edward Medical College to University and strived to set up Rescue-1122 which has not yet been forgotten by the citizens.
However, Malik Fayyaz Ahmad Awan son of ex-MNA late Fazal Hussain Awan belongs to suburban locality Gahri Awan, though elected twice as MPA, he failed to even improve sewerage system, sanitation and other civic amenities in his own locality. Syed Waseemul Hassan Naqvi of Tehrik Labbaik had contested 2013 election from this constituency and was defeated. He is son of late Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah Hafizabadi, a renowned scholar of Pakistan, and not in a position to get victory but would create setback to either PML-N or PTI candidate.
The candidates of other political and religious parties have no standing among the masses and they would be instrumental in the defeat and victory of any candidate. In nutshell, PP-70 has become unpredictable.
PP-71 Hafizabad-III consists of Pindi Bhattian town, Saddar, Sukheke town and Kassesay police stations having registered votes of 222,846 including 98,088 of women. In this constituency 15 candidates were contesting including Hamid Nazir of Allah-o-Akbar Tehrik, Sarfraz Khan of All Pakistan Muslim League, Syed Shoaib Shah Nawaz of Tehrik Labbaik Ya-Rasoolullah, Shoaib Shafiq Arain of PML-N, Qadir Khan of Tehrik Labbaik Islam, Muhammad Ahsan Jhangir of PTI, Miraj Din of PPP and independents Muhammad Aoun Jhangir, Muhammad Rafique, Zeehsan Ali, Sadia Liaqat Abbas, Syed Muhammad Ali Gilani, Shahid Abbas and Muhammad Rafique.
It consists of backward rural area and most of the electorates have binding affiliation with different clans including Bhatti, Syed, Kharl, Arain etc. having no political vision or ideology. During 2013 general elections Syed Shoaib Shah Nawaz, who has alarge number of his followers being spiritual leader of the area, was elected as an independent candidate with overwhelming majority but later his election was declared null & void. However, in the by-election Nighat Intisar mother-in-law of present candidate Muhammad Ahsan Jhangir of PTI become MPA.
Syed Shoaib Nawaz of Tehrik Labbaik is the most popular personality of Pindi Bhattian area having support of masses at a grassroots level. He and Liaqat Abbas Bhatti candidate for the slot of NA-87 have started vigorous campaign on the slogan of Tehrik Labbaik. The PML-N candidate Shoaib Shafiq Arain is banking on the ideological votes of PML-N. According to political pundits, he is the weakest candidate of PML-N in Hafizabad district. Similarly, Miraj Din of PPP is also having the support of ideological electorates of PPP. His position in the constituency is also not strong.
According to survey conducted by this scribe Syed Shoaib Shah Nawaz of Tehrik Labbaik Ya-Rasoolullah has an edge over all the candidates. However, the result in this constituency cannot be predicted and the position of different candidates might be changed during the next two weeks.