ABBOTTABAD, Dec 19: As many as 70 candidates are in the run for two National Assembly and five provincial assembly seats of Abbottabad district, but the election campaign is yet to pick up owing to bad weather and snowfall in the hilly areas.

Except one provincial assembly seat of the Abbottabad city, PF-44, where candidates can move freely, they are unable to hold big meetings due to the chilly weather, which has made the other constituencies inaccessible.

The total number of voters in Abbottabad district is 651,578, but according to the website of the Pakistan Election Commission, the number of registered voters is 658,118, which has a difference of 3,460 votes.

Among the contesting parties, PML-N, PML-Q, MMA (JUI-F), and MQM have fielded their candidates for both seats of the National Assembly.

The PPP and the PPP-S contesting only on the NA-18 seat of the district.

Five candidates are in the run for NA-17, while 13 are contesting for NA-18.

The contenders for NA-17 seat are Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan (PML-N), Amanullah Khan Jadoon (PML-Q), Raja Aurangzeb (JUI-F), Dr Azhar Khan Jadoon (Ind) and Ghulam Mustafa Samsam (MQM). For NA-18, the candidates are Chaudhry Faisal (Ind), Raja Khan (Ind), Sardar Aurangzeb (Ind), Sardar Riaz (Ind), Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob (PML-Q), Sardar Mushtaq (PPP), Sikandar Azam (Ind), Qari Syed Abdur Raheem Shah (MMA-JUI-F), Qazi Muhammad Azhar (PPP-S), Abdur Ghaffar Javed (Ind), M. Javed Abbasi (Ind), Murtaza Javed Abbasi (PML-N) and Nisar Ahmed Sulemani (MQM).

Seven candidates are in the field for the provincial assembly seat PF-44. They are Haji Ghulam Mustafa Khan Jadoon, Sardar Fazal-ur-Rehman, Samiullah Khan, Shamroz Khan Jadoon, Inyatullha Khan Jadoon, Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani and Humayun Khan.

The eleven candidates for the PF-45 seat include Al-Haj Abdur Rehman Khan Abbasi, Shahid Ali Abbasi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Abbasi, Sardar Ali Zaman, Sardar Muhammad Haseeb Khan Abbasi, Sardar Mumtaz Hussain Abbasi, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Sultan Mehmood Abbasi, Sahibzada Muhammad Azhar Bakoti, Sahibzada Muhammad Qasim and Nagina Afzal.

For PF-46, the contest is among 11 candidates. They include Haji Ghulam Mustafa Khan Jadoon, Haji Qalandar Khan Lodhi, Dr Qazi Adnan Bashir, Shaukat Ali Tanoli, Sahibzada Muhammad Ahmed, Zahoor Khan Jadoon, Qaiser Zaman Afridi, Muhammad Ashfaq, Muhammad Ayub Khan Afridi, Muhammad Saeed and Waqas Ahmed.

For PF-47, a total of 13 candidates are in the run. They are Ishitaq Azam Khan, Ejaz Zar Khan Jadoon, Khursheed Azam Khan, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalhota, Sardar Aurangzeb, Sardar Pervez Sarwar, Sardar Riaz Ahmed Khan, Sardar Shiraz Afzal, Sardar Sher Bahadar Khan, Sardar Muhammad Rafique, Sikandar Azam, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Madani and Nisar Safdar Jadoon.

For the PF-48 (Galyat) seat, 10 candidates are in the final list. They are Haji Muhammad Iqbal, Raja Khan, Sajid Ahmed Khan, Sardar Hamed Gul, Sardar Muhammad Idress, Sardar Muhammad Riaz Khan, Syed Nasser Hussain Shah, Muhammad Javed Abbasi, Waqar Nabi and Yasin Akhter Abbasi.

The PML-Q fielded its candidates for four provincial assembly seats and supporting Sardar Muhammad Idress, former provincial minister who is a close associate of former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Yaqoob who is contesting from NA-18.

The PML-N is another party who had fielded candidates on all the five provincial assembly seats where Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, former chief minister, is contesting the election on National and provincial assembly seats.