Once a stronghold of PPP, the party is nowhere in National Assembly Constituency NA-1, Peshawar and the maintaining of the third position is likely to become difficult in the upcoming by-elections. Zulfikar Afghani, City President PPP and candidate in last general elections had once filed nomination to face the candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), ANP and PML-N.
In general elections the constituency was won by the PTI chairman, Imran Khan, who had vacant the National Assembly constituencies Peshawar and Mian Wali and had retained the NA-56 Rawalpindi. The PTI is divided on the issue of the awarding of ticket, which it had awarded to Gul Badshah, the election campaign incharge of PTI in the constituency in general elections.
A total of 27 candidates had filed nominations for the by-elections, which include seven from PTI. They are Gul Badshah, Samad Mursaleen, Syed Qasim Ali Shah, Mohammad Saleem Jan, Arbab Mohammad Tariq, Atif Haleem and Zafarullah Khattak. The ANP has once again fielded former federal Minister for Railways, Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour while PML-N is likely to select candidate among the three probable including Mohammad Afzal Khan, Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah and Malik Najab Gul Khalil.
ANP is making efforts for retaining the seat and had also reached on a seat adjustment with JUI-F and in response it will support the candidate of the later in elections on NA seats from Lakki and Tank. Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), a coalition partner of PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has fielded its district Ameer, Baharullah Khan Advocate. Five independent candidates included Jehangir Khan, Attiq-ur-Rehman, Syed Hassan Mujtaba, Kamran Khan and Yasmin Shirazi are also in the run.
On the other hand the four times MNA from the constituency, Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, who was trounced by PTI chief with a huge margin over 66000 votes is banking on the workers of PTI, which had hurt by the vacation of the seat by Imran Khan. In general elections Imran Khan have obtained 90434 votes against 24449 of Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of ANP while Zulfikar Afghani of PPP managed only 7116 votes, followed by Shabir Ahmad Khan of JI who secured 7034 votes. Similarly, Hazrat Mohammad alias Babu Mavia of Muthahida Deeni Mahaz (MDM), Haji Shah Nawaz (JUI-F), Mohammad Afzal Paniyala obtained 4825, 4729 and 4230 votes respectively.
The provisional list of the candidates would be displayed on July 25 while July 26 is the date for the withdrawal of nomination papers from the contest. The final list of the candidate would be displayed on August 01, and polling would be held on August 22.