Shows the free elections are possible, and that the bully boy tactics of the JI fundos has failed. :k:
ANP wins Bajaur by-election
Shahabuddin Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) easily won the National Assembly by-election in Bajaur agency on Wednesday by trouncing the Pakistan Muslim League-backed candidate Said Badshah by almost 14,000 votes. In the process, the ANP won its first seat in the National Assembly. It had failed to win any seat in the October 2002 general elections. Even in their strongholds in the NWFP, the ANP candidates on that occasion lost to largely unknown MMA nominees. According to unofficial results from 58 out of the total 61 polling stations, Shahabuddin polled 18,220 votes while his rival got only 4,320. Results from three polling stations in the remote Ghar Shamozai area in Barang Tehsil were awaited but it would not impact the outcome of the vote. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) made a last-ditch effort to peaceflly dissuade voters from casting their votes by organising a big procession that marched on foot for several kilometres from Bajaur’s headquarters, Khar, to Inayat Qala, which is not far from Chingai village where the Madrassa was bombed allegedly by a pilotless, US Predator plane on October 30 killing 80 students and their teachers. The missile strikes, for which the Pakistan Army took responsibility, prompted the JI MNA from Bajaur, Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, to resign in protest.
Their MNA was the one who actually resigned in protest at the Bajur bombing, and as the JI were threatening resignations wholescale some weeks ago it would have looked been highly hypocrical of them to stand for this seat again. Then again their hypocrisy was exposed when they did not finally carry out their resignation threat in early December.
The newly-elected member of the National Assembly from Bajaur, Shahabuddin Khan, on Monday said the people of Bajaur had rejected ‘extremists’ and proved that they wanted peace and a democratic culture in the agency. Speaking at a news conference soon after returning from Saudi Arabia after performing Haj, he alleged that the Jamaat-i-Islami had terrorised tribesmen and created hurdles in polling but the area people had foiled their designs because they believed in democracy.
Flanked by Awami National Party joint secretary Afrasiyab Khattak and senior nationalist leader Latif Afridi, Mr Khan said the ANP had condemned the Bajaur attack and would oppose such attacks in future too, but boycotting the election was not a good option. He said the Bajaur Agency was a backward area. He said the agency should be included in the Provincial Administered Tribal Areas. “We want development and municipal services in Bajaur, therefore we demand its inclusion in Pata” the MNA-elect said. He urged the government to solve problems of tribesmen, abolish the Frontier Crime Regulation, extend the Political Act to Fata to create political awareness among tribesmen and allow the media to operate in the tribal belt without any restrictions. He thanked the people of Bajaur for voting him and vowed that he would work for development of the area