ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: Two former federal ministers and traditional arch rivals, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) PML-N and Ghulam Sarwar Khan of Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) PML-Q, are once again facing each other in the Jan 8 election for NA-53 seat, comprising Taxila tehsil, Wah Cantt and some parts of Rawalpindi city.

Out of five previous National Assembly elections, Mr Nisar and Mr Khan had contested against each other thrice and the former remained victorious in two of them whereas the latter recorded his only victory against the PML-N stalwart in the 2002 election. However, Mr Khan could not block the entry of the PML-N leader to the parliament for the sixth consecutive time as Ch Nisar, who had perhaps sensed his defeat before time, and also submitted his nomination papers from the newly-carved constituency of NA-52, where he defeated Nasir Raja of the PML-Q with a margin of over 17,000 votes.

After his repeated defeats as a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate in the hands of Mr Nisar, Ghulam Sarwar Khan finally decided to make a compromise with the country’s all powerful establishment and returned the PPP ticket for the 2002 election. He then contested the polls as an independent candidate, and as promised he was made a federal minister in return of his joining of the King’s party after winning the National Assembly polls for the first time.

On the other hand, Mr Nisar has so far shown consistency and proved his loyalty to his party leadership and for this act, he is considered a man of integrity in the area.

Besides the two political rivals, there are five other candidates in the constituency, but the political experts believe that the main contest will be between these two arch rivals. The PPP, which had been fielding different candidates in this constituency, has this time again awarded the ticket to Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz, who had already contested the elections in 1997 and 2002. Sardar Shoaib, who had bagged more than 40,000 votes in the 1997 election, could only secure 6,673 votes in the 2002 polls.

Chaudhry Nisar, who has never lost an election since 1985, was once considered the de facto chief minister of Punjab due to his close association with the then chief minister and now his party head Nawaz Sharif.

Taking advantage of his influence in the party, Mr Nisar succeeded in getting development funds for his constituency when his party ruled the country twice. Before military coup on October 12, 1999, Mr Nisar was also considered to be a man having full support of the military establishment. It is said that Nawaz Sharif had appointed Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf as chief of the army staff on the recommendations of Chaudhry Nisar.

However, after the throwing out of the PML-N government by Musharraf, Mr Nisar decided to stay loyal to Mr Sharif. He remained under house arrest for many weeks after the military takeover.

Later, he in his speeches on the floor of the National Assembly and in his press conferences openly and harshly criticised the army for interfering in the country’s political affairs. He claims that he was offered a lucrative position by President Pervez Musharraf, but he refused to ditch Nawaz Sharif.

The two constituencies of NA-52 and NA-53 were carved out from the previous NA-40 constituency before the October 2002 election.

In the 2002 election, Ghulam Sarwar Khan took part as an independent candidate and with a clandestine support from the establishment and the PML-Q bagged 66,900 votes and managed to defeat Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who polled 57,110 votes.

The turnout in the 2002 election was 50.98 per cent as 148,646 voters, out of a total 291,549 registered voters, cast their votes in the constituency.

In the 1988 election, Mr Nisar as an IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) candidate defeated the PPP’s Col (retd) Habib Khan after a close fight. Mr Nisar polled 64,186 votes whereas Col Habib bagged 57,878 votes. There were four other candidates in the run but they failed to show any worth-mentioning performance. The turnout in the 1988 election remained 59.99 per cent as out of a total of 224,437 registered voters, 134,650 used their right to vote.

In the 1990 election, for the first time IJI’s Chaudhry Nisar faced Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the Peoples Democratic Alliance (PDA). It was a one-to-one contest which was won by Mr Nisar with a margin of over 15,500 votes. Ghulam Sarwar obtained 63,021 votes whereas Chaudhry Nisar secured 78,530 votes. The constituency witnessed the highest turnout of 62.60 per cent when 143,213 people cast their votes out of 228,821 registered voters.

Mr Nisar repeated the history in the 1993 elections when he defeated Ghulam Sarwar Khan with a margin of 11,488 votes. This time, Chaudhry Nisar polled 76,288 votes against 64,800 votes of Ghulam Sarwar Khan. The turnout in the 1993 election was 60.65 per cent. There were a total of 246,471 registered voters and 149,496 of them turned out at the polling stations.

In the 1997 election, Ghulam Sarwar Khan opted out of the National Assembly election and decided to try his luck on the provincial assembly seat. The PPP awarded ticket to Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz. However, Sardar Shoaib also failed to stop the running spree of PML-N’s leader who once again became the MNA and defeated the PPP this time with a bigger margin than the previous elections. Mr Nisar obtained 79,255 votes whereas PPP’s Sardar Shoaib could secure only 41,008 votes. There were two other candidates in the run as well but they failed to get more than 5,000 votes collectively. The turnout in the 1997 election remained 48.52 per cent. The total number of registered voters was 262,338 and 127,308 of them cast their votes.

The number of registered voters in this constituency has increased to 343,160 and the Election Commission has announced to set up 289 polling stations with 660 polling booths and 289 presiding officers.