MINGORA: Leaders of all opposition political parties here on Sunday decided to field joint candidates against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidates in the by-elections in PK-3 and PK-7. The elections will be held on October 14.

The decision was made in a meeting of all the opposition political parties in Kabal, which was attended by the district leaders of PML-N, ANP, PkMAP, JI, JUI-F, QWP and PPP. The leadership of all the opposition parties announced that they would field only the runner-up candidates of the general elections against PTI in the by-elections. They decided to field ANP candidate Waqar Khan in PK-7 and PML-N candidate Sardar Ahmad Khan in PK-3. Both were the runner-up candidates in the July 25 general elections.

“We, the leaders of all the political parties are on one page and have decided to field our joint candidates in the coming by-elections,” said ANP district president Sher Shah Khan.

They demanded that army’s role should be limited to maintaining security outside the polling stations. They claimed that their joint candidates would be victorious if the by-elections were conducted in a transparent way. They alleged that PTI won in the general elections through rigging.

PML-N leader Usman Ghani said that his party wanted a stable democracy in the country and had raised the slogan of respecting vote.

PPP district president Irfan Chattan said that his party leadership had also endorsed the decision of fielding joint candidates in the by-elections and they would support the ANP and PML-N candidates in PK-7 and PK-3. He said that there was perfect peace in Swat and the by-elections should be conducted under the security of police only.

They also passed a unanimous resolution, calling for conducting the upcoming by-polls under the civil administration, saying that the army’s role should be limited to maintenance of security outside the polling stations.

However, PTI district president and MPA Fazal Hakim said that the last elections were held in a fair and transparent way and the by-elections in Swat would also be conducted under the supervision of Pakistan Army.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2018