LAKKI MARWAT: A jirga has asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to withdraw its decision to disqualify provincial transport minister Malik Shah Mohammad Khan for allegedly inciting violence during the first of local body polls in Bannu.

The jirga comprising elders from Bakkakhel, Momandkhel and Janikhel clans met at Kurrum Ghari Bazaar in Bannu on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion, elders Malik Mir Shamad, Malik Gulbaz Khan, Malik Qadir Khan and others wondered why the minister was penalised for an offence he did not commit as his name was not even mentioned in the FIR of the attack on a polling station in Bakkakhel area.

They said the tribesmen would boycott the second phase of the local body polls in case the ECP did not withdraw its decision.

On Jan 31, the ECP had disqualified the provincial transport minister and his son, a contender for tehsil chairman slot, for five years for attacking a polling station, snatching election material and abducting the staff in Bakkakhel during the local body elections.

The elders said the ECP decision had deprived the residents of Bakkakhel of representation in the provincial assembly. They said the minister had no link with the incident.

CATTLE MARKET: The district administration plans to shift the cattle market from Bannu city to the new site near Chak Dadaan along the Bannu-DI Khan Road, an official said on Sunday.

He said the government had acquired land on the outskirts of the city for the cattle market, where development work was in progress.

The official said deputy commissioner Mohammad Zubair Niazi had directed the tehsil municipal administration to complete the arrangements for shifting the cattle market to the new site on Feb 11.

It is pertinent to mention here that the tribesmen had staged protests against the decision, saying they won’t give their agricultural lands for the cattle market.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2022