9 PTI MNAs Constituencies Selected As 'Soft Prey' For PDM In By-Polls.

ISLAMABAD -- Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf, in consultation with the ruling coalition partners, has banked on the PDM's collective vote bank and cautiously selected 9 'comfortable constituencies' to accept the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNAs with a hope that the coalition would easily win the by-elections in these constituencies.

A close reading of the constituencies suggests that the speaker made the 2018 general election results basis of his decision. He considered two main things while selecting the constituencies; one that the margin of victory of the PTI members in 2018 general election in these constituencies was thin as compared to the other ones and that the PDM vote bank in these constituencies collectively surpasses what the PTI members individually bagged in 2018 elections. So, the ruling alliance is banking on the collective vote bank of the PDM parties in these constituencies to win the by-polls.

As per the 2018 general election results, in NA-22 (Mardan-III), Ali Muhammad of the PTI got 58,652 votes while Maulana Qasim Jan of the MMA bagged 56,587 votes. The difference of votes was just over 2000 votes. On the other hand, Jamshid Khan of the PML-N got 36,804 votes, ANP's Malik Aman Khan 27,303 votes and PPP's Shoaib Alam Khan secured 13,336 votes from the constituency. The margin of victory in the constituency was low and now the ruling alliance has selected this constituency with a hope that they would be able to help cast the collective votes of the PDM parties in favour of their joint candidate.

Similarly, in NA-24 (Charsadda-II), Fazal Muhammad Khan of the PTI had defeated ANP's Asfandyar Wali Khan. Fazal bagged 83,596 votes while Asfandyar Wali Khan could secure only 59,809 votes. The encouraging thing for the ruling alliance is that Maulana Muhammad Gohar of the MMA had bagged 38,330 votes and PPP's Aftab Alam got 10,464 votes.

In NA-31 (Peshawar-V), Shaukat Ali secured 87,975 votes to defeat ANP's Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour who could bag 42,526 votes only. However, the PDM component parties' candidates including Muhammad Siddiq Ur Rehman of the MMA got 11,669 votes while PPP's Muhammad Irfanullah got 75,06 votes.

In NA-45 (Kurram-I), Fakhar Zaman Khan of the PTI had defeated JUI-F's Jamil Khan Chamkani in the 2021 by-polls with a difference of just few hundred votes. Zaman got 16,911 votes while Chamkani got 15,761 votes. The seat had fallen vacant after the demise...