LAKKI MARWAT: Jamaat-i-Islami Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief and former senator Mohammad Ibrahim on Sunday feared the general elections won’t be held on time though the Election Commission of Pakistan had announced to hold polls in January next year.

He was speaking at an Ulema convention in Bannu attended by religious scholars and clerics from across the division.

Among others Jamiat Ittehadul Ulema president Maulana Asadullah, secretary general Maulana Hidayatullah, Mufti Imtiaz Marwat, JI’s provincial deputy emir Maulana Tasleem Iqbal and district emir Mohammad Ajmal Khan also spoke.

“In the prevailing circumstances, it is difficult to believe the election watchdog will hold polls on time,” said JI’s provincial chief.

He declared that the sole aim to liberate the country from the British rule was to enforce Sharia but it could not be implemented till date. Declaring British-era laws the main hurdle in provision of justice to the poor, he said Jamaat, if voted to power, would change the country’s judicial system. “The courts will deliver judgments according to the injunctions of the Holy Quran,” he claimed.

Mr Ibrahim asked the political parties to field honest candidates in the general elections. “Our party will nominate honest and God-fearing aspirants for elections to the provincial and National Assembly constituencies as we believe in the politics of serving people,” he maintained.

DENGUE CONTROL DRIVE: The elementary and secondary education department has launched an anti-dengue awareness campaign in government schools across the district, said an official on Sunday.

Additional district education officer (ADEO) Dr Ihsanullah told Dawn the campaign was initiated on the instructions of district education officer Mohammad Ilyas Khattak. He said dengue cases would increase with the change in weather, so the anti-dengue awareness drive was aimed to assist the health department in its efforts to eliminate the disease.

The official said the schools’ heads had displayed charts and banners in their respective schools highlighting symptoms, treatment and precautions of the disease. “Lectures are being delivered by teachers in morning assemblies to sensitise students to the precautionary measures,” he claimed.

He said school bosses had been directed to improve hygiene, avoid accumulation of water on the premises and advise students to wear full-sleeve clothes and use mosquito nets at homes.

KILLED: A young man was killed and two others were injured when rival groups exchanged fire over a dispute in Shah Hasankhel village on Sunday.

The city police station officials identified the deceased as Faridullah, whose body was taken to the Government City Hospital. They said Niaz Mohammad, 36, and Hazrat Bilal, 37, were wounded from the other side.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2023