LOWER DIR: Awami National Party central spokesman and party’s candidate for NA-7 seat Zahid Khan on Saturday promised maintaining the tax-free status of Malakand division if ANP formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He stated this while addressing a workers’ convention held in Malikabad area of Balambat here.

ANP candidates for provincial assembly seats, including Malik Sajjad Yousafzai, Malik Mohammad Zeb Khan, Khurshid Tajak, Ali Bakht and others, also spoke.

Zahid Khan, also a former senator, said ANP had completed several development projects in Lower Dir during its government in the province.

He claimed the former princely state of Dir was merged into Pakistan without taking its ruler – the Nawab of Dir – into confidence. He said the government had no mandate to impose taxes upon residents of Dir because it was a ‘held’ territory.

The ANP spokesman said his party had the credit of executing projects of gas supply, Jandol and Maidan grid stations and Bacha Khan OPD at Timergara Hospital. He asked the people of Dir to vote for his party if they wanted to see their area developed. He asked the party workers to speed up their door-to-door canvassing.

The other speakers expressed anger at the unscheduled electricity loadshedding in the district. They said ANP would bring people on roads if power outage did not end.

Meanwhile, a man was killed and another injured when unknown motorcyclists opened fire on a moving car in Shamshi Khan area of Talash here on Saturday, the police said.

They identified the deceased as Mohammad Rahman, 38, a resident of Shaltalo Barawal area of Upper Dir, and the injured as Ashraf Ali, a resident of Malakand Payeen.

The injured was shifted to the Talash Category-D Hospital.

The motive behind the incident is stated to be an old enmity, the Talash police said.

They registered a case and started further investigations.

Separately, scores of political workers on Saturday joined Pakistan Peoples Party during a function held in Ali Mast area of Adenzai.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP divisional president and former state minister Malik Azmat Khan and others claimed it was the PPP that always represented the marginalised communities. They said PPP believed in serving the masses.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2023