Tough Electoral Battle Expected On KP's Largest Constituency Stretching Between Peshawar To Balochitan's Border

NA-51 the largest constituency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, spreading in the whole of the province from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan's Sherani area near Balochistan border, is expected to witness tough electoral battle among PTI, MMA, ANP and Independent candidates.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jul, 2018 ) :NA-51 the largest constituency of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, spreading in the whole of the province from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan's Sherani area near Balochistan border, is expected to witness tough electoral battle among PTI, MMA, ANP and Independent candidates.

The election results would mostly be unpredictable and dependent on voters choice of their own as the constituency being so vast is difficult to be covered by a single candidate for his election campaign.

However, candidates were doing their best to muster the support of voters for their parties and it is expected that main contest would be among MMA's candidate Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Qaiser Jamal Afridi of PTI, Shahi Khan of ANP, Baz Gul Afridi Independent and Abdullah Nangyal Bettani Independent.

The old number of the constituency was NA-47 which consists of a cluster made up of six Frontier Regions (FRs), previous called as semi tribal areas, including FR Dera Ismail Khan, FR Tank, FR Lakki, FR Bannu, FR Kohat and FR Peshawar.

According to the officials of Elections Commissions of Pakistan, a total of 19 aspirants were in the field as 166014 voters would elect one of them for the National Assembly slot from their area.

100287 male and 65727 female voters will cast their right of vote and elect the candidate for this constituency.

Registered voters of FR DI Khan are 28,764, FR Tank 20936, FR Lakki Marwat 12494, FR Bannu 12446, FR Kohat 59037 and FR Peshawar 32937.

It is worth mentioning here that in general elections 2002 Dr Naseem Afridi Independent won this seat by getting 10,341 votes while Zafar Baig Bettani Independent won in general elections 2008 as Independent by getting 21,426 votes.

Similarly, in 2013 general elections, Qaiser Jamal Afridi of PTI won this seat by getting 11,328, Mufti Abdul Shakoor of JUIF 10,240, Sher Azam Khan of PPP 5028, Baz Gul Afridi 4310, Abdullah Nangyal Bettani Independent 4131 and Shahi Khan of ANP bagged 2805 votes.

Sherani tribe is living in FR DI Khan, Bettanis' in both FR Tank and Lakki, Wazir in FR Bannu, Afridis' in both FR Kohat and Peshawar. It merits a mention here that maximum candidates contesting from this constituency belong to FR Kohat and FR Peshawar.

Mostof the tribal people of this constituency are associated with trade, livestockand some are employed overseas.