PESHAWAR, May 27: The Pakistan People’s Party, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has decided to field its own candidates on all provincial and national assemblies’ seats in the province in upcoming general elections while ruling out any pre-poll alliance with the Awami National Party.

“In case of any pre-election alliance with the ANP, the PPP workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would avoid casting votes,” PPP provincial information secretary Syed Ayub Shah told Dawn.

He said that the party would have to honour the workers’ demand for not entering into any pre-poll alliance with the ANP.

“We want our central leadership to support the party leaders in all the districts like that of ANP so that they could initiate uplift schemes for people and manage to get votes in their constituencies,” he pleaded.

Mr Shah said that the leadership should listen to the workers and address their grievances so as to strengthen the party. He said that the ANP ministers had badly ignored the PPP workers in all the districts and they were not ready to support its candidates in any case in future.

“We have planned to reorganise the party at all levels and ensure that the PPP ministers do not ignore the workers,” he said.

When contacted, PPP provincial general secretary Dost Mohammad Khan also confirmed that the party would nominate its own candidates on all the seats. “Yes, we have decided to name our own candidates on all seats and there will be no pre-election alliance with the ANP,” he said.

The PPP, he said, was trying to win maximum seats in the next general elections and a strategy had been devised for the purpose. He said that all the annoyed party people would be brought back into the party fold. He said that the PPP was a democratic party and its workers had the right to express their views openly. Mr Khan said that he was sure that sympathies of PPP workers would remain with their own candidates.

One PPP source said that the decision of no pre-poll alliance with ANP was against the will of PPP central leadership, but the party workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not ready to accept any such alliance with the ANP. “This time the workers are clear about that,” he added.

The source said that PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was in favour of continuing working relationship with its coalition partner (ANP) in the province in order to get its support in future, especially for formation of next government in the country.

The PPP workers, he said, were extremely disappointed at the irresponsible behavour of their party ministers and other elected members, as they were not ready even to listen to them. He said that in most of the KP districts the party workers were divided and had formed parallel groups, mainly due to negligence of the provincial leadership.

“The replacement of Syed Zahir Ali Shah with Senator Sardar Ali as provincial president of the PPP was meant to reorganise the party at all levels, but the new president also failed to do this job and rather further disappointed the workers,” a senior PPP leader said.

Besides, sources said that there was no organisational structure of People’s Students Federation for last three years while People’s Youth Organisation had also been ignored and parallel groups were working.

“The continuing differences in the party can be judged from the fact that the party workers are frequently issuing statements against each others and even they once clashed at the residence of provincial president in mid May,” he said.

He said that none of the PPP workers was in favour of alliance with the ANP. The losing candidates of PPP, he said, wanted to get tickets and in case they were disappointed they might switch to rival political parties.