Political awareness?: Chitral doubts its elected representatives, fears neglect

CHITRAL: 

While the country celebrates a historic transition of power from one civilian

government to another, residents of Chitral are questioning their Election Day decision.

Iftikharuddin, a candidate of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), won from NA-32 Chitral. From PK-90 and PK-80, Ghulam Muhammad, another representative of the APML, and Saleem Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) won, respectively.

Despite the fact that all three candidates were elected by the people, residents worry Chitral will be neglected due to their position with the winning parties of both the federal and provincial assemblies.

Abdul Hamid, a local APML leader, expressed reservations regarding the new representatives as party chief Pervez Musharraf is restricted to his farm house and General Secretary Dr Amjad boycotted elections.

He was of the opinion there is little the elected candidates could do, especially since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to form a government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the APML’s ‘archrivals’, will rule from the centre.

“Out of sheer emotion, we gave our votes to APML. Now I think this was a wrong move,” Hamid said, claiming the successful candidates would not be able to get development funds from the federal or provincial government. Though I am still loyal to the party and continue to support them, electing APML candidates was not a good decision, he added.

“Chitral will once again be thrown into the dark abyss of deprivation,” said Hamaduddin, an Awami National Party (ANP) leader in Chitral. He also believed the people had made a mistake by voting for the APML candidates, adding that though they respected Musharraf’s efforts and projects in the region, the political position was now different.“Since Musharraf cannot release himself, he cannot fight for Chitral.”

On the other hand, Salman Farsi, a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activist, has his hopes tied to the new government and is certain the PTI and JI coalition, in the K-P assembly at least, will not disappoint the residents of Chitral.

“I am unsure about the centre,” he admitted. Farsi added the people in Chitral were politically aware and could judge who had done more work for the region.

Meanwhile, Hafiz Ayun, a former PK candidate and a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl said he did not think Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan would neglect Chitral due to personal biases. Instead, he claimed they would provide funds and launch developmental projects like they would in Peshawar and Lahore, “We hate Musharraf’s policies, but we love his projects in Chitral”.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.