HARIPUR, March 3: The years old political rivalry between the Ayub family and Rajgans of Khanpur (Raja Sikandar Zaman family) was intensified during the last couple of weeks when MNA Omar Ayub and district Nazim Dr Raja Amer Zaman tried to bag the credit of a road project and earmarking hefty funds for it, in union council Barkot, Haripur.

Official sources told Dawn that Nazim Raja Amer Zaman had approved a Rs10 million road construction scheme for a three-km-long strip of the 16-km Neelan Bahoto road from the funds of his younger brother Raja Faisal Zaman, NWFP minister for sports and culture, who inaugurated the project by unveiling its plaque in January this year.

Since the said road geographically falls in the revenue limits of PF-49 Haripur 1, an old domain of the Rajans, the required process of calling tenders and awarding contract to winner through the Haripur works and services department did not cause any routine delay and funds were released promptly.

When the winning contractor was about to execute construction on the scheme, MNA Omar Ayub approved Rs9.1 millions for the same length of the road from his own funds and inaugurated the same project again within the same week, fixing his own signboards opposite to the board got installed by Raja Faisal Zaman.

This move by Omar Ayub annoyed the Rajgans, who through DCO Haripur served a notice to the contractor registered with the Pak-PWD Islamabad, barring him from carrying out the road construction work, which he, according to the contents of notice, started without the prior approval of the district government.

It was reported that the political bickering between the Rajgans and Ayub family has deprived the people of Barkot union council, one of the remotest and undeveloped area the district, of a road communication facility for indefinite period. Mr Omar and Mr Amer, it was noted, had been engaged in war of words over the claim of providing Sui gas and electricity to Khanpur and other areas.

Mr Omar claims to have got the project approved and financed from the premier directly while Mr Amer says he got these facilities sanctioned from President Musharraf during his visit to Hazara for his referendum campaign.

Omar Ayub, son of a PML-N's former foreign minister, had been defeated by sitting district Nazim Dr Raja Amer Zaman with a big margin in the local government polls of 2001. However, Mr Omar won the Oct 10 general elections.