MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Tuesday offered the Qaumi Watan Party the options of alliance and seat adjustments for next election in the province.

The development came during the visit of a PML-N delegation led by local MNA Mohammad Sajjad Awan to the house of Qaumi Watan Party leader Abrar Hussain Tanoli.

The meeting lasted many hours with the leaders of both parties discussing the possibility of electoral cooperation and support.

The other participants included adviser to the prime minister Sardar Shahjehan Yusuf, tehsil nazim Sheikh Mohammad Shafee and Abrar Tanoli’s Mohammad Safeer.

Both sides confirmed the meeting but didn’t share its details saying it will be premature to do so as the talks are under way.

Sources in the PML-N said in case of an electoral alliance, the two parties would formally disclose it in a presser. “We both want to defeat the PTI in polls,” an insider told Dawn.

Mansehra MNA says seat adjustments also possible

Sources insisted that the PML-N promised support for Mr Tanoli in the PK-36 constituency if he withdrew the candidature of his son, Safeer Tanoli, in PK-35.

They said the PML-N also sought the QWP’s support for its nominees for the imminent presiding officer elections.

PTI FLAYED: PML-N MNA Mohammad Sajjad Awan has blamed the country’s economic problems on the wrong policies of the last PTI government but insisted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration would address all those issues effectively for national development.

Mr Awan told reporters here the other day that the PML-N would emerge as the single largest political party in the elections to be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the dissolution of the assembly.

He said that his party would install a government with the support and cooperation of the Pakistan Democratic Movement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The people are so disappointed with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s performance in the centre as well as the province that they will never vote for it again,” he said.

The PML-N lawmaker said the Shehbaz-led federal government had launched mega development projects within a year of its formation unlike its predecessor, PTI, which couldn’t execute even a single such scheme during four years of rule.

POLLS: Former MPA from Torghar district Laiq Mohammad Khan has announced contesting election in the area on the ticket of the Awami National Party.

“Satisfied with my performance as the MNA, my party [ANP] has again awarded an election ticket to me. I will continue working to live up to its and people’s expectations,” Mr Khan told a jirga in Darband area the other day.

The event was attended by elders of major local tribes.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023