HARIPUR: As many as 47 candidates, including eight women, have been left in the field after withdrawal of nomination papers for the one National Assembly and three provincial assembly seats of Haripur district.

The returning officers have also issued election symbols to the candidates. According to the final list, 14 candidates will contest election in NA-17. They also include Irum Fatima, a woman candidate contesting on ANP ticket for the second time, and PPP’s Shaista Naz.

Prominent candidates in NA-17 include PTI’s Omar Ayub, PML-N’s Babar Nawaz, PML-Q’s Hamid Shah, Mohammad Zubair of Tehreek Labaik, Malik Shakil of Allah-o-Akbar, MMA’s Farooq Shah and Qazi Atiqur Rehman of Pakistan Falah Party.

For PK-40 Haripur-I, 11 candidates kept their candidatures intact. Faraziya Shaheen of ANP and Razia Jafri of Majlise Wahdatul Muslimeen are also vying for the seat. Other candidates include Ejaz Ali Durrani of PPP, Akbar Ayub of PTI, Qazi Mohammad Asad of PML-N, Qazi Atiqur Rehman of Pakistan Falah Party, Hamid Ali of MMA, Khalid Khan of Allah-o-Akbar and Qasid Ali Shah of Tehreek Labaik.

For PK-41 Haripur-II, nine candidates have been left in the field. ANP has given its ticket to Sahira Syed and MMA to Farzana Rehan while PTI has fielded Arshad Ayub, PML-N Faisal Zaman and PPP Raja Javed.

A total of 13 candidates, including two women, were in the running for PK-42. Nine candidates, including two former MPAs, are contesting independently. In this constituency, PML-N has fielded Syed Qasim Shah while Mohammad Waseem would contest on Tehreek Labaik ticket.

The PTI has named Saima Khalid as its candidate while former MPA Dr Faiza Rasheed will contest the polls in independently.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2018