National Assembly’s seat no 55; has become one of the most heated and looked forth seat ever in any by-polls elections. The current election’s is all about changing loyalties. National Assembly (NA) – 55; comprises of half of the Rawalpindi city. These elections have become more or less like a fierce battle between Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed (Awami Muslim League). It is important to mention the history between the two parties i.e. PML (N) and Sheikh Rasheed.

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed had long enjoyed the support of PML (N) and had won the elections of 1985, 88, 90, 93, 97 and 2002. Amongst all these elections except 2002 Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed had the backing and prayers of PML (N) but after the coupe of 1999; somehow the other difference came between Sheikh Rasheed and PML (N); to say the least in the elections of 2002 Sheikh Rasheed repeatedly applied for the ticket of PML (N) and repeatedly he was refused; to which he stood as an Independent candidate i.e. not belonging to any party and his promise to the constituency was that he will win the elections and put this seat into the feet of PML (N)’s leader Nawaz Sharif but to utter shock Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed joined PML (Q) and became part of the cabinet. This not only infuriated PML (N) but also developed a strong animosity amongst PML (N) and Sheikh Rasheed.

At the dawn of election 2008 shocking results poured in that resulted in a major defeat to Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed; and his ego was badly hurt. He was not only beaten in his own home town by a margin of 61,200 votes but received the most shocking votes ever imagined i.e. 15,780 votes which resulted him to give up on his security deposited with Election commission of Pakistan.

Security deposited with election commission of Pakistan is the amount that the a candidate deposits before standing for elections and the security is forfeited if the candidate gets votes less than one eighth of the total number of votes casted during the elections.

PML(N)’s candidate Makhdoom Javed Hashmi later decided to give up on the NA-55 seat for his hometown seat in Multan. NA – 55 has been empty for some time now and the Punjab government was not very interested to hold by-elections in this constituency and the reason put forth was Terrorism. For which Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed took the matter to Lahore High Court where it was ruled out that elections due to security conditions cannot be held in NA-55; the judgment was challenged by Sheikh Rasheed in Supreme Court of Pakistan where the court ordered elections and put aside Lahore High court’s decision.

And finally the much awaited elections will be held on the 24th of February, 2010. The major three candidates standing the elections give a very funny look because Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed was a former PML(N) candidate; whereas PML(N)’s candidate Shakeel Awan is a relative of Babar Awan of PPP and was also a close aid of Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed previously then the candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Ijaz Khan Jazi previously was the member of PML (N); so the entire constituency has a mix bag of candidates to offer. The other candidate with more than 20 million of advertising so far Barrister Danish who is an independent candidate initially tried for a ticket from PML(N) but on refusal decided to run an independent campaign; though the advertising campaign has been very strong but I guess Sheikh Rasheed and PML(N) overshadow everyone in this particular constituency and I believe even Imran Khan’s party.

In an interesting bid PPP is supporting Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed silently whereas as PML (Q) is also supporting Sheikh Rasheed Ahemd. Though PPP is crossing charter of democracy but I guess the charter of democracy was never implemented. Whereas, PML (N) has not done a single development, project in NA-55 and the party is not sure whether they can pull another win.

Another factor playing in the minds of PML (N) leadership is the fact that recently their MPA’s (Member of Provincial Assembly) have been found to be involved in crimes such as credit card theft and rape, such things have defamed the partly on the grass root level to an extent.

Whatever the case is the agenda of the major two candidates i.e. Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and PML (N) is not something positive; they both just want to beat each other for the sake of their egos; there is nothing stored for the masses; nothing was done for Rawalpindi (NA-55) when there was no representative and nothing will be done even with a representative. Last time in 2008 the voting turnout was 39.8%; let’s see how many turn out this time to vote for a change and yet there will no change irrespective of the person you vote for!

It’s 24th February 2010 and people of Rawalpindi will cast their votes today. NA-55 is considered to be the hottest seat in media and healthy competition is expected between 22 candidates belonging to PML, PTI, AML, JI, ANP etc and several independent candidates.

There are of 334,269 registered voters in NA-55, including 183,507 men and 150,762 women. 250 polling stations have been setup containing 597 polling booths.

Please feel free to share any updates on this election.

Related posts:

1. Zardari demolishes the 2nd Pillar of the State
2. ECP to introduce Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) system in Pakistan
3. Electronic Voting System in Pakistan
4. Malik Must Resign for his utter Incompetence and failure
5. Asma Jahangir: A Zionist puppy?