All major political parties had fielded their candidates in the by-election scheduled on National Assembly constituency NA-4, Peshawar IV. The seat had fallen vacant due to the death of Gulzar Khan of PTI on which polling will be held on October 26, 2017.
In past the area was considered a stronghold of ANP and PPP while PML was also having vote bank in the area. Since the general elections of 1988, the ANP candidate late Arbab Mohammad Zahir remained triumphant in 1990, 1993 and 1997. PPP had clinched the constituency only once in 1988, when its candidate Sardar Ali Khan won it by defeating Latif Afridi of ANP while in most of the remaining elections its candidate remained runner-up.
In the general elections of the 2002, Sabir Hussain Awan of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) a candidate of the Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal won the election by defeating Arbab Mohammad Zahir of ANP while in 2008 the constituency was once again retained by Arbab Mohammad Zahir and Azam Khan Afridi of PPP remained runner-up. However, in the general polls of 2013, the PTI candidate Gulzar Khan, a retired bureaucrat outclassed all political parties by securing over 53,000 votes while Nasir Khan Musazai of the PML-N remained runner by securing nearly 18,000 votes.
For by-poll on the vacant seat, PTI has fielded Arbab Mohammad Aamir, a new comer into the party while PPP has nominated Asad Gulzar, the son of the deceased PTI MNA. Similarly, ANP has given ticket to Khushdil Khan advocate, a former Deputy Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, who had lost the provincial assembly constituency under the same NA seat with a narrow margin to PTI candidate and sitting Information Minister Shah Farman.
The two major religio-political parties Jamaat-e-Islami and JUI-F have also fielded their candidates while two new political parties, included Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan and Mili Muslim League, which had also participated in the by-election of NA-120 Lahore are also in run for the seat.
After candidates, the political parties had launched electioneering and using all available forums including print, electronic and particularly social media to woo voters' support in favour of their nominees. The political parties are also approaching other to seek electoral support for their respective candidates and the recent meeting of the Advisor to PM and provincial president, PML-N Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with chairman QWP Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao was a big step in his regard so far.
The by-election has also surfaced a rift in the coalition partners of KP government as JI and PTI are at loggerhead over the issue and both parties are urging each other for the withdrawal of their respective candidate. However, both are still stick to their demands and no one is ready to surrender.
For running a successful election campaign, ANP has constituted union council level committees to mobilize voters in favour of their candidate while PPP has tasked senior leadership of the party to run the election campaign of the party candidate.
Similarly, PML-N has also accelerated election campaign and directed its party workers for running door-to-door drive for their candidate while PTI has constituted different teams comprising youth and evolved strategy for conducting election campaign in the constituency.
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