PESHAWAR, Dec 13: The Fata chapter of the Jamaat-i-Islami announced on Thursday that candidates for 11 National Assembly seats from the six tribal agencies would withdraw their nomination papers on Dec 15.

Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, former JI MNA from Bajaur Sahibzada Haroon-ur-Rasheed said that the JI would pull out of the race in line with a decision of the All Parties Democratic Movement.

He said that political parties that had decided to contest the election had endorsed illegal and unconstitutional steps taken by President Musharraf.

He said the rulers had turned the country into a US colony after 9/11 and added that the US and its western allies had been trying for decades to deprive the country of its Islamic identity. He said the US had attacked the Bajaur agency two years ago and killed innocent residents and students of a seminary, but the government had not lodged any protest with Washington.

He said the government had hoodwinked people by dubbing the incident as a punitive action against extremists hiding in the seminary.