MARDAN, July 16: Political and religious parties in the Mardan district have started collecting applications from people aspiring to contest the forthcoming local body elections. The Awami National Party, People’s Party Parliamentarians, Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam are quite active and have completed almost 70 per cent work in connection with finalizing their candidates.

The People’s Party (Sherpao), Jammiat Ulema-i-Islam (Sami), PML-Q and PML-N have not yet shown any interest about taking part in the polls, perhaps because of non-availability of candidates.

These parties have not formed parliamentary boards to invite applications either.

The ANP is to field its candidates under the group name of Watan Dost, PPPP has adopted the name of Awam Dost, Jamaat has chosen the name of Al Khidmat and JUI-F the Islam Dost.

The ANP’s district parliamentary board is headed by provincial joint secretary Haider Khan Hoti while the PPPP’s board includes Abdul Akbar Khan, Murad Khan, Ifitkhar Khan and Abdul Ahad Khan.

President of PF 24 of ANP, Imran Mandoori, said his party had completed more than 70 per cent work with regard to finalization of candidates. He was confident that the work would complete well before the filing of nomination papers.

He said the party was facing difficulty in choosing candidates from among a large number of aspirants who have applied for the party ticket. The matter, he hoped, would be ably tackled by the party’s parliamentary board.

PPPP tehsil Mardan president Iftikhar Khan claimed that applications from 70 per cent UCs had been collected and hoped that the party would be able to field candidates in all UCs.

A large number of candidates for the local government election received forms with their supporters from offices of magistrates at the district courts on Saturday.

Local leaders of the parties were present to guide their candidates.