SWABI: Seven political parties here have formed an alliance to set up the local governments in the district headquarters and the four tehsils.

Sources told Dawn on Wednesday the leaders of the seven parties held a meeting the other day and finalised arrangements for forming district and tehsil governments. They said the key motivating factor behind the establishment of Swabi Democratic Alliance (SDA) was the ANP’s district president Ameer Rehman who is expected to contest for the slot of the district president.

They said the alliance comprised ANP, JUI-F, PML-N, PPP, QWP, JI and Swabi Qaumi Mahaz (SQM), adding the SDA’s objective was to keep PTI and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) out of the local government.

When contacted, Mr Ameer said the alliance’s major objective was to run a smooth district government while meeting the people’s expectations.

In the district assembly ANP has 24 councillors, PTI 11, JUI seven, AJIP six, SQM two, QWP three, PML-N two and PPP one.

Mr Ameer said district nazim slot would be given to ANP and that of naib nazim to JUI-F, adding in Swabi tehsil, nazim would be from JI and naib nazim from ANP.

Similarly, he said in Chota Lahor tehsil nazim’s slot would go to PML-N and that of naib nazim to ANP.

He said in Razaar tehsil, ANP was in position to form its own government while in Topi tehsil PTI was likely to establish its government.

He said all the other alliance partners would be accommodated in the formation of the local governments.

Meanwhile, the PTI and AJIP have a constituted a six-member committee to devise a future course of action in case the two parties sit on the opposition benches in the local government setup.

Local leaders of the two parties said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar met Muqarab Khan, a former PML-N leader at his residence in Palodand and urged him to head the committee and pursue anti-ANP groups and parties to join the two parties’ alliance.

When contacted, Mr Muqarab told Dawn he had accepted the offer of Mr Qaisar to lead the efforts for formation of the district government in Swabi.

However, he admitted that they were too late to block the formation of an ANP-led district government, but said they could still muster support to have a strong opposition. He said efforts were afoot to reach all the elected district councillors.

Biland Iqbal, AJIP’s central general secretary, said they would remain in contact with all the elected leaders and due weight would be given to district and tehsil councillors.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2015

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