MANSEHRA, May 22: The provincial president of the PML (Quaid-i-Azam Group), Salim Saifullah Khan, has claimed that Hazara is the stronghold the party and no other party can win election there.

He was speaking at a public meeting at Battal in Konsh Valley. Mr Saifullah arrived here on Tuesday on a week-long tour of the Hazara division for initiating the party campaign for general elections. He inaugurated the party office here besides speaking to the workers’ conventions in Shinkiari, Chattarplain and Batagram.

The PML-QA leader said that in recognition of Hazara people’s love for the PML, the party had elected Gohar Ayub Khan its general secretary and Sardar Mohammad Yousaf its provincial general secretary, both of whom belong to Hazara.

Mr Saifullah hoped that like past the people of Hazara would elect the PML-QA candidates on all the national and provincial assembly seats in the coming election as well.

He said the “true” Muslim Leaguers had come together under the leadership of Mian Mohammad Azhar in the PML(QA) in which all the office-bearers had been elected in a transparent way.

He said that by holding the party election a democratic tradition had been set in the PML which had got rid of the monopoly of one family.

He criticized the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his son-in-law Mohammad Safdar for damaging the PML’s reputation in Hazara and for ignoring the sincere party workers.

He said the PML(QA) supported the devolution plan launched by the government but warned that no one would be allowed to use the local council institutions for victimizing the political opponents.

He said it was an irony that the agents of the USA and Britain had entered political parties and the cabinet. These elements, he added, hatched conspiracies against the country.

He asked the government to bring an amendment to the constitution that no one holding dual nationalities would be allowed to contest the election.