ISLAMABAD: Election campaign ends in the capital for by-polls to be held on August 22 for the seat of NA 48 and main contest is expected between Asad Umer candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Ashraf Gujar of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz.
According to details, National Assembly seat 48 was vacated by stalwart of PTI Makhdoom Javeed Hashmi who won with big margin of over 20,000 votes and Anjum Aqeel Khan of PML N was on the second spot and Mian Aslam of Jamate Islami was on the third place. Latter, Javed Hashmi retained his hometown constituency in Multan.
Although previously Federal Capital remained the stronghold of PML N but political circumstances have been changed and PTI has emerged as the most popular political party atleast in the NA 48 in last general elections. PTI has awarded party ticket to Asad Umer to contest, it was evident in the beginning of the election campaign that local leaders of PTI were not pleased on Awarding party ticket to Asad Umer but PTI's campaign got momentum when Imran Khan lead a public rally in the capital and yesterday he addressed a mass gathering at G-9 markaz before the dead line for election campaign. But generally the political pandits place Asad Umar in advantageous position because of the door-to-door campaign he was running for the past well over a month. The PTI is mainly banking on the urban voters, which had helped Hashmi won the seat with huge margin in general elections. PTI also held meetings with JI to get support in the elections as Mian Aslam of Jamate Islami has withdrawn his nomination papers, both the parties are coalition partners in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and it is likely that JI would support Asad Umer in by-polls.PML N has ignored Anjum Aqeel Khjan who was contesting in last general elections held in May and has awarded party ticket to Ch Ashraf Gujjar who would be contesting in by-polls. Although PML N is in power both in Punjab and at Centre, which would definitely influence voters for obvious reasons but N league has to do a lot to gain this seat back. Unlike PTI, PML N took a long time to decide its candidate for by-polls as Anjum Aqeel Khan, Hanif Abbasi and some others were also hoping to get a nod but Ch Ashraf Gujjar received the green signal at the end; which resulted less time for the election campaign. Ashraf Gujjar could not fully mobilise his voters in the constituency, particularly in the rural areas. To boost up the election campaign Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and NA-49 MNA Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhryalso addressed a public rally in the capital on Tuesday. It was also learnt that Anjum Aqeel Khan was not very pleased with the decision of awarding party ticket to Ashraf Gujjar, along with him some other local leaders of the party were not warmheartedly supporting Gujjar as they believed that their sacrifices for the party have been ignored and an outsider was given the ticket. Although on the direction of party high command Anjum Aqeel Khan was supporting Gujjar, yet majority of his supporters are not going to vote for PML-N candidate and would either stay away from the electoral process or vote for some other candidate.
Pakistan People’s Party has maintained its candidate Faisal Sakhi Butt but it is unlikely that he would mark a very significant impression on the elections. Dozen of independent candidates also would be contesting the by-polls in NA-48. Overall Twenty-two candidates are contesting for the seat vacated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
