July 13, 2018
PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has fielded 201 candidates, including 13 women, for the national and provincial seats across the country in the general election 2018.
The ANP has not fielded even a single female candidate in the party strongholds. The party has fielded 62 candidates on general seats for the National Assembly across the country and 139 candidates for provincial assemblies in all the four provinces.
Among the candidates for the National Assembly, 40 candidates are contesting the election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and erstwhile Fata and Frontier Regions (FRs). Nine of these 40 candidates are from erstwhile Fata and one is contesting election for the FRs seat.
Two female candidates are contesting polls for the National Assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Iffat Kulsoom is contesting the election on NA-13 Mansehra and Irum Fatima has been fielded on NA-17 Haripur.
Nadeem Sarwar is contesting polls for NA-53 Islamabad as ANP candidate. The ANP has fielded three candidates on general seats for the National Assembly in Punjab. Two of them are contesting election from Khushab district and the third candidate Nosheen Khan Baloch is contesting the election on NA-155 Multan.
Eleven candidates are running for the NA seats in Sindh province. Three of these 11 candidates are females. Sofia Yaqoob is contesting the election on NA-256 in Karachi, Shazia Razzaq Khan has been fielded on NA-244 Karachi, Samina Huma Mir is the candidate for NA-245.
Seven ANP candidates are contesting election for National Assembly from Balochistan. None of them is female. The party has fielded 89 candidates for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats, including five female candidates for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
Three female candidates have been fielded in Abbottabad while two of the three party candidates in Haripur are females.
Twenty-eight candidates, including two females, are running for the Sindh Assembly seats. Among the female candidates, Masooma Noor Tareen is contesting elections on PS-103 Karachi East and Saiqa Noor for PS-87 Malir.
Shahid Mehmood is contesting the election on PS-64 Hyderabad and the remaining candidates are running for different seats in Karachi. The party has fielded 19 candidates for different seats of Balochistan Assembly.
Out of these 19 candidates, one female candidate Jameela Kakar is running for PB-26 Quetta. Three candidates of ANP are running for the Punjab Assembly. Among them, two are contesting the election in Chinot and one in Multan. All the ANP candidates for the Punjab Assembly are male.
Originally published in The News