SWABI, July 18: The local leaders of the allied parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said here on Thursday that they didn’t receive any ‘green signal’ from their leadership to support the candidate of their main partner, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), in the by-election for the National Assembly seat, NA-13, Swabi-II.

The by-election for the vacant seat will be held on Aug 22. The seat fell vacant when Asad Qaisar, the speaker of provincial assembly and PTI provincial president, opted for PK-35, Swabi-V.

Mr Qaisar was the only PTI candidate, who won from two constituencies while all the remaining candidates of his party in the district tasted defeat in the May 11 elections.

The district leaders of various political parties are waiting for the instructions of their provincial leaders to either enter into an electoral alliance with other parties or opt for solo flight in the by-election.

Saeed Zada Yousafzai, the district chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, a coalition partner in the provincial government, said that despite announcement by the chief minister that the coalition partners would support each other’s candidates in the by-elections, he didn’t know what they would do because the picture was not clear.“Our main candidate and covering candidate have filed nomination papers. We hope to contest the election on our own symbol, scale,” he said.

Similarly, the local leaders of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), another allied party, are also not clear about the by-election.

“We haven’t received any indication about forming electoral alliance from our leaders and our preparations for the election are continued unabated,” said Jehanzeb Khan, a key district leader of QWP.

The leadership of the third coalition partner, Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), has also not taken any clear decision about the upcoming by-election in the district.

However, PTI leaders, when contacted, said the coalition partners would support their candidate Aqibullah Khan, the brother of Mr Qaisar.

On the other hand, Pakistan People’s Party leader Javed Inqilabi said that Naeem Khan was their nominated candidate for the upcoming by-election in NA-13 constituency. It would be third time that Mr Naeem would contest election from this constituency.

“However, if party leadership forms electoral alliance with any party for the by-election, we would follow suit,” he said.

The local leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said that there were slight chances of their alliance with any political party in the district for the by-election. “Some of our party members are hopeful that our leadership might form an alliance with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl but they are not sure about it,” said a PML-N leader.

However, JUI-F candidate Maulana Attaul Haq Darvaish said that the leadership of his party decided that he would contest the election.

“Support of some pressure group is critical for our party because we were runner-up in the general elections. In the by election, we have a good chance to win the seat,” he added.