SWABI, March 8: The Independent Swabi Group (ISG) of Nazimeen, which emerged victorious in the district Nazim election in August last, has decided to field joint candidates in the forthcoming general elections, insiders told Dawn here on Friday.

They said the negotiations had been held on a number of occasions about the forthcoming elections in which the ISG had vowed to block the candidates of the Awami National Party who claimed that Swabi would remain a stronghold of their party.

During the district Nazim election, the Swabi Qaumi Mahaz, PPP-S PML-N and PML-Q had contested election on a united platform and succeeded to inflict defeat on ANP’s panel both in district and tehsil Swabi Nazim elections.

One of the founders of the ISG said: “If the PML-N and PPP or PML-N and religious parties entered into an electoral alliance it would pave the way for gathering of all the political parties on a single platform against the ANP in district Swabi, making quite difficult for its candidates to expect victory.”

In the district Nazim election, the political analysts recalled, the Jamaat-i-Islami was in an alliance with the ANP but now the religious parties and the ANP are arch rivals. The JI and other religious parties had also castigated the ANP for its policy towards the uprooted Taliban regime. They said the religious parties would strongly oppose the ANP in the October elections.

They claimed a political marriage between the PML-N and religious parties was quite imminent as they shared a common objective — opposition to the government.

The religious parties had been annoyed by the Musharraf regime to abandon Taliban while the PML-N government was overthrown by the military, they added.

They said the delimitation of the constituencies would also be very helpful for the ISG as it seems the whole Razar belt would be separated from these when two national assembly seats were awarded to Swabi. Razar belt had remained a stronghold of the ANP and its candidate Haji Rehmanullah’s position was boosted by it during his nomination as MNA twice.

The ANP position, they further said, was strong in PF-24 and PF-26 but in PF-25 and PF-27 it was defeated. Now it was expected that six provincial seats would be awarded to Swabi which may divide its strong areas, they claimed.

They, however, conceded that without an alliance it would be very difficult for them to defeat the ANP candidates, saying the ground was quite set for a crucial showdown between the ANP and other parties.

If the government maintained the graduate condition for the contesting candidates, they went on to say, it would further push the ANP to the corner as its main leaders were no longer in a position to contest elections and the ANP leadership dilemma would haunt it.