ABBOTTABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have named their candidates for the election of the Abbottabad district nazim and naib nazim scheduled to be held on Thursday (April 5).

PTI has nominated Ali Khan Jadoon for the top slot and Sardar Waqar Nabi will be contesting for the seat of naib nazim, while PML-N has picked Siddique Qureshi for the nazim and Naheed Awan for the naib nazim position.

PTI claims the support of 45 members in the 77-member district council, while PML-N with 32 seats is hopeful to give tough fight to the former.

It should be noted here that former district nazim Sardar Sher Bahadar and naib nazim Shaukat Tanoli were de-seated under the defection law after a long legal battle.

Sher Bahadar, who had also served as PTI district president, had defeated PTI’s nominee Ali Khan Jadoon, who is elder son of former federal minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon, for the slot of district nazim.

After the election, PTI disowned Sher Bahadar and filed a reference against him in the Election Commission of Pakistan under the local government act.

It may be recalled that district council funds to the tune of Rs1.2 billion could not be spent during the past two and a half years due to the legal battle for the slot of district nazim.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2018