CHITRAL, April 18: As many as 102 personnel of Chitral district border police have been sent on forced retirement. These officials include one subedar major, four subedars, 15 naib subedars and sepoys.

Sources told Dawn here on Thursday that as per instructions from the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the deputy commissioner being the ex-officio commandant of the force sent packing the officials who had attained age of 42 years or rendered continuous service of 25 years. The affected personnel have approached the Peshawar High Court for stay order against their forced retirement. The force was raised to keep vigilance on movement of people on Pak-Afghan border.

PAPERS WITHDRAWN: Several candidates withdrew their nomination papers here on Thursday.

In their separate press conferences here, Maulana Asif Iqbal of Muttahida Deeni Mahaz announced to withdraw his papers in favour of Maulana Abdul Akbar of Jamaat-i-Islami in NA-32. Amir Hasnatuddin, an independent candidate of PK-89, withdrew his papers in favour of Khalid Parvaiz, the local president of APML. Shahid Alam announced to withdraw in favour of Maulana Hussain Ahmed in PK-90 and Fazlur Rahman in favour of Maulana Abdur Rahman in PK-89. Similarly, four independent candidates of PK-89 announced to pull out in favour of former minister Saleem Khan of PPPP.