Veteran politicians try luck in political fertile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
PESHAWAR (APP): The heavyweight of different religio-political parties have eyed on the national and provincial seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for General Election 2024.
PMLN Quaid, Nawaz Sharif has filed nomination papers from Manshera, Qumi Watan Party Chief, Aftab Sherpao from Charsadda and PTI Parliamentarians Chairman, Pervez Khattak from Nowshera constituencies.
Similarly, Jumat Islami Pakistan Ameer, Sirajul Haq from Dir, ANP Provincial President Aimal Wali Khan from Charsadda and former Federal Minister Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who defeated Benazir Bhutto Shaheed in 1990 election is contesting from NA-32 Peshawar.
JUIF leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman is trying his luck from hometown DI Khan while former Chief Ministers Haider Khan Hoti from Mardan and Mahmood Khan from Swat are also in elections race.
Professor Dr. A.H.Hilali, former Chairman, Political Science Department, University of Peshawar said that participation of the senior political leadership from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa magnified the political significance of the province.
Following May 9 riots, he said political vacuum existed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and all political parties were trying to secure maximum seats from here.
He said people of KP were eagerly awaiting of the political parties’ manifestos for solution of their problems such as unemployment, poverty, pricehike and illiteracy.
Dr M.A Malik, former Chairman Political Science Department, University of Peshawar said political leaders were trying to exploit political vacume in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following split of PTI in different groups.
He said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has recently visited different districts of KP where he nnounced key points of his party’s election manifesto including construction of three million houses for poor, launching of welfare cards for labouers, patients and farmers besides increasing BISP assistance.
‘Thousands of graduate voters wanted dignfied jobs and any political party have a solid program for employment creation would take an edge over others on February 8, 2024.”
Dr Hilali said that unfortunately, unemployment has increased in last few decades in the country due to lackluster approach of the past governments.
He claimed that unemployment rate in Pakistan was 6.42% in 2022, a 0.08% increase from 2021 while in 2020 it was 6.55%, showing a 1.72% increase from 2019 besides 4.83% in 2018, a 0.75% increase from 2018.
He said over 21 million voters were added to the electoral rolls since 2018 elections in Pakistan where the number of women voters had swelled from 46.73 million in last polls to 58.47 million in 2023 due to population explosion that put extra burden on all resources besides increasing unemployment and illiteracy.
He said the number of male voters had jumped from 59.22 million in 2018 to 68.50 million till July 25, 2023. ECP statistics further revealed that approximately 127 million registered voters would exercise their right of franchise in the upcoming general election out of whom about 72.31 million (56.9pc) were registered in Punjab, 26.65 million in Sindh (21pc), 21.69 million voters (17.1pc) in KP while 5.28 million ( 4.2pc) in Balochistan.
In Pakistan, the total registered voters in 2018 was 106 million including 59.22million male and 46.73million female voters, showing a 12.49 million deferences between both sexes while in July this year its number jumped to a record 127 million.
This signficant difference of 12.49 million were further increased to an all time high of 12.72 million when 62.55 million men and 49.83 million women were found eligible to cast vote next year.
The ECP statistics has disclosed that there were around 57.1 million youth aged between 18 and 35, making up 45pc of those, who are eligible to vote.
The number of voters aged 36 to 45 years comes to 27.79 million ie 21.88pc and the two age groups if seen together comprise 84.81 million voters or two-third of the total 127 million voters in Pakistan.
Dr Hilali said that young voters, especially females representing nearly 50 percent of the population , would be a key factor in deciding fate of political parties on February 8 election.
He said that about 22 million children aged 5-16 years were still out-of-schools (OSC) in the country including 4.7 million in KP due to poverty and socioeconomic imbalances and bringing them under education net would be a big challenge for future political government.
Senior PMN leader, Wajid Ali Khan said that eradication of price hike, promoting industrialization for jobs creations for youth and improving economy would our priority areas if voted to power.
He claimed that a political party that came into power with tall claims of providing 10 million jobs and construct 5 million houses for poor before 2018 election were failed to honour its manfestio.
Young voters Basit Khan and Shahryar Khan besides millions others eagerly awaited to poll their first vote in February 8, 2024 General Election.
They said that political parties with solution of problems of unemployment, illiteracy and inflation would get a clear edge over others.
They expressed the hope that political parties would soon announce manifestio with workable programs for education of voters.
The experts urged political parties and people to get unite for election to take democracy to the safe shores.
They said no politcal party has an edge over others so far and any politcal party that get support of large tribes and better manfestio would get majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
