The final day of the electioneering remained calm along with a rigorous campaigning in the two constituencies of the National Assembly of the federal capital.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has set mid-night of Saturday the deadline for the political parties to wind up the campaigning in the wake of the historical parliamentary elections scheduled for February 18 after completion of five years of the previous parliament.
Corner meetings, door-to-door campaign, rallies and other tactics of power show were seen round the clock on the last day by the political parties to attract maximum voters.
Federal capital has two NA constituencies-48 having 239,349 registered votes including 129,208 male voters and 110,147 female whereas 185 polling stations have been set up in the constituency. In NA-49 there are 242,127 registered votes including 131,766 male and 110,361 female and 197 polling stations have been set up.
Like other parts of the country, tough contest is likely among the candidates of the three major political parties--Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) in the constituency.
Besides using all other tactics for motivation in their favour, all the political parties have almost crossed the limitation of their spending on the campaigning specified by the Election Commission of Pakistan for a candidate of a NA and PA-Rs 1.5 million and Rs 10 million, respectively.
All the roundabouts, crossings, markets, and roads of the city have been decorated with banners, posters, placards, gigantic portrays and hoardings of candidates as their leadership, which also seem to be without caring the certain limitation of the Election Commission of Pakistan's rules of publication.
In NA-49, besides other contesters of small parties and a number of independent candidates, a stiff fighting is likely among the three candidates of mainstream political parties Dr Tariq Fazal of PML-N, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari of PPP and Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar of PML-Q, who is son of former Deputy Speaker of National Assembly Haji Nawaz Khokhar. The three contesters had also the rival candidates in the 2002 general elections where PPP Nayyar Hussain Bokhari defeated PML's Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar with a slight margin followed by Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry of PML-N.
Besides, an independent candidate Malik Tabarak Hussain and MMA candidate Raja Ishtiaq also active among the other contesters but as per the voters feedback their wining chance is less.
Like NA-49, the three mainstream parties have similar stiff competition in NA-48 where PPP fielded Dr Israr Shah, PML-N Anjum Aqil Khan and PML-Q given ticket to its previous contester and a student leader Rizwan Sadiq. Anjum Aqil seems to be more effective candidate in this constituency due boycott of Jamaat-i-Islami as well as his effective campaigning along with party chief Nawaz Sharif, who addressed a number of meetings in Islamabad.
However, Dr Israr Shah of PPP have some sympathies due to the assassination of PPP slain chairperson Benazir and he himself had lost his two limbs in a suicide attack in July last in a reception camp at F-8 Markaz organised for reception of the sacked Chief Justice of Pakistan. So, the final neck-in-neck competition is likely between Dr Israr Shah and Anjum Aqil of PML-N and the position of Rizwan Aqil is not satisfactory due to launching an ineffective campaigning and some of the party polices including tackling the Lal Masjid issue. Let see the final result on Tuesday as how it dawns and to whom it brings a victory.