PTI, which is the third largest political party with 30 seats in National Assembly followed by PPP with 41 members, is making all-out efforts to win majority of the vacant seats to clinch the lucrative slot of leader of the opposition in the lower house of the parliament, which is currently held by PPP's Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah.
Sources in PTI are confident that if the elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner the party will emerge as the second largest party in parliament as the party has fielded strong candidates. "We are making all-out efforts and of course trying to take over the office of the opposition leader in NA with the sole objective of playing a tough but constructive role in the house," said a senior PTI leader. However, PTI would need to at least win 11 seats out of 14 in the by-elections to come at par with PPP while the party is not contesting on all 16 NA seats.
According to former secretary ECP Hassan Mehmood, traditionally by-polls never have any major impact on party positions in national and provincial assemblies. He said the ECP would try its best to hold by-polls in a transparent manner in order to restore its lost credibility, as PTI and some other political parties had raised serious questions on the fairness of the May 11 general elections.
Though incumbency has always mattered in by-elections, however, the former secretary said the incumbency factor may have lost its sheen because of the incompetence of PML-N and PTI after coming into power. PTI's main focus is on the 12 vacant NA seats from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Islamabad while it has no candidate in the contest for all the three NA seats of Sindh - NA-235 Sanghar, NA-237 Thatta and NA-254 Karachi.
It has fielded its candidates for all the six National Assembly seats of Punjab and one from Islamabad while it has its representatives in the race for 12 out of 14 Punjab assembly seats. It has no nominee to compete for PP-193 Okara and PP-292 Rahim Yar Khan. In Sindh, a close competition is expected between the traditional PPP and MQM while PML-N has also fielded a strong candidate this time around as a heavyweight Riaz Hussain Shirazi is contesting on PML-N ticket from Thatta and Maulana Abdul Sattar of the party is also in the run for NA-254 Karachi.
PTI has fielded candidates for all the five National Assembly seats and for two of the four provincial seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. The party has fielded its candidates in NA-1 Peshawar, NA-5 Nowshera, NA-13 Swabi, NA-25 Dera Ismail Khan-cum-Tank and NA-27 Lakki Marwat; PK-23 Mardan and PK-70 Bannu.
NA-I Peshawar, which was vacated by PTI chief Imran Khan after wining from the seat in May 11 general elections, is once again expecting a neck and neck competition between PTI and ANP. PPP, JUI-F and PkMAP have also joined hands to support ANP's Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour against PTI's Gul Bacha from NA-1 where the ANP's nominee is favoured as the internal rift within PTI is evident with the leadership ignoring Samad Mursaleen who is now contesting as an independent. Additionally, PTI has no candidate for PK-27 Mardan and PK-42 Hangu where the independent winners, who later joined it, were killed in different incidents.