{"id":52952,"date":"2024-01-27T08:43:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T08:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/independents-heat-up-na-55-race-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-01-27T08:43:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T08:43:07","slug":"independents-heat-up-na-55-race-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/independents-heat-up-na-55-race-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Independents heat up NA-55 race | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nRAWALPINDI:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fierce, sensational and captivating electoral battle is anticipated on February 8 in the NA-55 constituency of the National Assembly, encompassing the cantonment areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Independent candidates, backed by both the leading political parties \u2013 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) \u2013 are set to clash in this high-stakes contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Candidates from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) will also join the fray. PML-N\u2019s candidate, Malik Abrar Ahmad, is facing criticism from within his party, including Raja Jahandad, former vice-president of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB), Malik Usman, an independent winner from ward number two, and former senator Chaudhry Tanveer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the PTI-supported independent candidate is grappling with challenges, including legal cases hindering an independent election campaign. Malik Abrar, the PML-N\u2019s candidate, previously secured a seat in the 2013 general election but faced tough competition in 2018 from PTI candidate Amir Mehmood Kayani, who won with 105,000 votes to Malik Abrar Ahmed\u2019s 60,125.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>PPP, PTI independents to form govt in centre: Khuhro<\/a><\/p>\n

The constituency comprises 10 wards of the RCB area and Chaklala Cantonment Board, housing communities such as Rajgan, Malik, Chaudhary, Khan, and others. A total of 32 candidates, including representatives from various parties and independents like former provincial law minister Raja Basharat, are in the race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite allotted symbols for the candidates, a closely contested battle is expected, particularly between the PML-N candidate and PTI-backed Raja Basharat. The constituency has a total of 431,832 voters, with 210,783 females and 221,049 males. Malik Abrar faces internal party opposition, notably from Raja Jahandad, the vice-president of the RCB, against whom Abrar played a crucial role in a no-confidence motion. Additionally, two candidates, Raja Malik Usman and Haji Zafar Iqbal, who were denied PML-N tickets are now running as independents in other constituencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th<\/sup>, 2024.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAWALPINDI: A fierce, sensational and captivating electoral battle is anticipated on February 8 in the NA-55 constituency of the National Assembly, encompassing the cantonment areas. Independent candidates, backed by both the leading political parties \u2013 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) \u2013 are set to clash in this high-stakes contest. Candidates from Jamaat-e-Islami […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/1759031-Byelectionsx-15317144361629185833-0\/1759031-Byelectionsx-15317144361629185833-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faisalabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}