As many as 164 candidates including bigwigs of national politics are contesting general elections on two national and five provincial assemblies’ seats from Dera Ismail Khan. According to the District Election Commission, 38 candidates would contest elections on two constituencies of the National Assembly i.e. NA-44 and NA-45 while 126 are in the race fray for five Provincial Assembly seats from the district.
As many as 23 candidates are in run for NA-44 (DI Khan-I) which included Jamiat Ulema Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Central Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi, former federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarian (PTIP) leader Muhammad Jawad Asghar, Muhammad Shafiq Ul Hai of Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP), Muhammad Yousaf Khan of Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Sherullah Khan of Awami National Party (ANP) and 17 independent candidates.
On NA-45 (DI Khan-II), 15 candidates are contesting elections including Fateh Ullah Khan of PPP, Obaid Ur Rehman of JUI-F, Shahi Khan of ANP, Muhammad Ijaz of JI, and 11 independents. Among independents, Muhammad Yaqub Shaik is also a strong candidate who is contesting elections with electoral symbol ‘Clock’ and had won the seat in 2018 elections on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket.
Among provincial assembly seats, the highest number of candidates i.e. 35 are in race for PK-113 including Aziz Ullah Alizai of PPP, Muhammad Kafeel Ahmad of JUI-F, Sirhaan Ahmad Khan of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Qayyum Nawaz of PTIP, Taimur Ali Khan of ANP, TLP’s Haji Muhammad Aqeel.—APP
