Following the announcement of the 2024 general elections schedule, candidates in the Narowal district have begun their campaign activities. This includes political meetings and corner gatherings.
In the 2013 elections, the Narowal district comprised three national and five provincial seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won all three national seats, with Mian Muhammad Rasheed, Daniyal Aziz, and Ahsan Iqbal as the winning candidates. Additionally, PML-N emerged victorious in all five provincial seats.
In 2018, one national seat in the district was reduced, but five provincial seats were retained. A significant development occurred during this period when the Supreme Court disqualified Daniyal Aziz of the PML-N for five years before the election.
In the last general elections, the PML-N had nominated Mehnaz Akbar Aziz, the wife of Daniyal Aziz, for the Narowal One constituency (now NA-75). She won with over 111,000 votes. Tariq Anis, an independent candidate, secured the second position, while the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate and former PML-N MNA Mian Muhammad Rasheed came in third place.
The population of Narowal district is approximately nine lakh 51 thousand. Among the over 12 lakh 27 thousand registered voters, more than six lakh 66 thousand are male, and more than five lakh 60 thousand are female.
In the newly delineated constituencies, two National Assembly seats and five seats for the Provincial Assembly have been maintained in this area.

Narowal new delimitation 2023

2018 National Assembly Constituency NA-77 Narowal 1 is now NA-75 Narowal 1
This National Assembly Constituency comprises the populations of Zafarwal and Shakargarh Tehsils. The new delimitation has not altered this constituency. The areas that were part of this constituency in the 2018 election will remain unchanged in 2024.

2018 National Assembly Constituency NA-78 Narowal 2 is now NA-76 Narowal 2
This constituency contains both the urban and rural populations of Tehsil Zafarwal. In the recent constituency delimitation, there has been a minor adjustment, with the exclusion of the village of Dahmthal Patwar Circle from Zafarwal Tehsil.

The National Constituency NA-75 comprises Tehsil Shakargarh and Tehsil Zafarwal. It has been five years since the disqualification of PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz. He is set to be the PML-N candidate for this constituency. It is anticipated that he will once again compete against Tariq Anees Chaudhry and Usman Rashid, son of Mian Rashid, both of whom have declared their candidacy as independent candidates.

District Bar Member Mohammad Irfan Khan closely monitors local politics. He says that the Gujjar, Ansari, Pathan, Arayan, and Kashmiri (immigrant) communities constitute the majority of votes in this constituency.

In the Narowal district, voting patterns are more influenced by caste rather than purely political considerations.

According to Mohammad Irfan Khan, Daniyal Aziz and Tariq Anis are associated with the Gujjar community, while Mian Rashid is a member of the Arain community. Daniyal Aziz and his late father, Anwar Aziz, historically have had stronger support in Zafarwal Tehsil. But they also enjoy personal support in Shakargarh.

He anticipates a closely contested election between Tariq Anis and Daniyal Aziz in the Shakargarh Tehsil. However, Tariq Anis’s position appears less strong in Zafarwal. The third candidate, Mian Usman Rashid, is expected to have a stronger voter base in the Tehsil Zafarwal.

Mian Usman Rashid’s mother served as a member of the provincial assembly. His father, Mian Rashid, and Mian Rashid’s daughter-in-law, Sumaira Yasir, have been members of the National Assembly. Despite this, in the previous election, Mian Rashid secured only 55 thousand votes in this constituency. Tariq Anis lost to Daniyal Aziz’s wife by 50 thousand votes.

NA-76 encompasses the villages of Shakargarh and Tehsil Narowal. In the previous election for this constituency, PML-N Central Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal won with over 159,000 votes, defeating PTI’s Abrar-ul-Haq, who secured 88,000 votes.

In this national constituency, the Mughal, Butt, Jat, Rajput, Arain, and Rana communities hold a significant majority of the votes compared to other communities.

Local politician Saeed-ul-Haq Malik says that Ahsan Iqbal began his campaign right after the previous election. He says that Iqbal consistently engages with voters in his constituency, holding weekly meetings at their deras.

“Ahsan Iqbal remains actively engaged in corner meetings. Abrar-ul-Haq has bid farewell to politics, and Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate, has returned to his hometown of Shakargarh from Narowal. As of now, no candidate has stepped forward to contest against Ahsan Iqbal.”

Under the new constituency demarcations, the five provincial constituencies of Narowal district are designated as PP-54, PP-55, PP-56, PP-57, and PP-58.

PP-54 consists of Zafarwal City and its surrounding villages. Former PML-N MPA Owais Qasim Khan, elected from this constituency, parted ways with the party in 2018. He contested as a PTI candidate from the same constituency, but the independent candidate, Pir Saeed-ul-Hasan Shah, won, defeating the PTI and PML-N candidates.

In this provincial constituency, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal has nominated his son, former district council chairman Ahmed Iqbal, as the candidate. Thus, three candidates have entered the race here. Both Saeed-ul-Hasan Shah and Owais Qasim Khan have previously served as members of the assembly.

Owais Qasim’s family holds a substantial vote bank in this constituency.

On the other hand, Saeed-ul-Hasan is recognised as a religious figure and won in the previous election without being affiliated with any political party.

However, Ahsan Iqbal and five former MPs of the district are participating in Ahmed Iqbal’s election campaign. Hence, a thorny competition is expected between the three.

PP-55 comprises Shakargarh city and its surrounding villages. The PML-N candidate Maulana Ghiyasuddin has emerged victorious from this constituency in the last two elections. In 2018, he won against the former Chairman of the District Council, Dr Naimat Ali Javed.

Abid Farid Khan Advocate, says that Maulana Ghiyasuddin changed his political affiliation and has been supporting the PTI government in the province. As a result, the district organisation of PML-N has proposed to nominate Hafiz Muhammad Shabbir for the party ticket, and he is currently running his election campaign in this constituency.

He says that the Ansari community holds significant importance in this provincial constituency. Given that both Maulana Ghiyasuddin and Hafiz Muhammad Shabbir belong to the Ansari community, there is a potential for vote division within this demographic. The Gujjar community also has considerable influence, with a substantial number of votes in this constituency.

In the last two elections, the runners-up in this constituency, Dr Naimat Ali and Dr Gulzar Ahmed, were PTI candidates from the Gujjar community. It remains uncertain about who will take the field from here.

PP-56 encompasses the villages of Shakargarh, where the Pathan, Gujjar, and Ansari communities play a prominent role. The PML-N candidate Rana Manan Khan won in the last two elections in this constituency. He won against PTI’s Saqib Idris Taj in one election and Muhammad Arif Khan in another.

In this constituency, the PML-N candidate is Rana Manan Khan, and Muhammad Arif Khan is actively campaigning as an independent candidate.

PP-57 covers the Municipal Committee Narowal and its surrounding villages. In the previous two elections, Khawaja Wasim Butt of PML-N won in this constituency. In 2013, he defeated PTI candidate Muhammad Irfan Butt, and in 2018, he won against Muhammad Sajjad Mahees with a margin of 20 thousand votes.

Muhammad Sajjad has left PTI and joined the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP).

Meanwhile, Amjad Khan Kakar is vying for the PTI ticket in this constituency.

PP-58 includes the villages of Tehsil Narowal and Tehsil Zafarwal. In 2013, retired Colonel Shujaat of PML-N won against independent candidate Rana Muhammad Wakil Manj and Nadeem Nisar of PTI in this constituency. The most recent election saw Colonel Shujaat’s nephew, Bilal Akbar Khan, winning on the PML-N ticket.

Bilal Akbar Khan won by defeating PTI candidate Rafat Javed Kahlon in this constituency by a margin of more than 22 thousand votes. PML-N candidate Bilal Akbar is anticipated to face competition from Afzal Ahmed and Mohammad Wakil Manj in the upcoming election.

Various forms of local alignments are underway in the Narowal district in all the constituencies, but the voters will ultimately decide on February 8.