PESHAWAR, Nov 17: The Pakistan People's Party has called upon all its breakaway factions to get united against anti-people forces supporting the 'apolitical' government in power.

Welcoming the withdrawal of Sher Afzal Khan, PPP (Sherpao) nominee for NA 35, Malakand, and his rejoining the mainstream party, PPP leaders said that the return of Mr Khan to the party fold would strengthen the PPP and ensure victory of Eng. Humayun Khan in the Dec 15 by-election.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, provincial senior vice-president Syed Qamar Abbas, Syed Ayub Shah and Khwaja Yawar Naseer urged all the PPP splinter groups to shun their differences and merge themselves with the mainstream PPP.

They said the federal and provincial governments "have made hollow promises" with the poor people of Malakand to win the by-election. "If the Election Commission holds free and fair elections in Malakand, the PPP nominee will win the seat," they claimed, pointing out that the constituency had been a stronghold of the PPP since 1970.

They demanded that the CEC intervene and restrain federal and provincial ministers, encamped in Malakand, from announcing development schemes. The exercise, they said, amounted to pre-poll rigging.

"The people will reject time-servers and purveyors of sectarianism on Dec 15 and vote for the PPP nominee," they said. They said PPP's Humayun Khan, who had served as Malakand Nazim, had paved the way for socio-economic development by laying out infrastructure across the district.

They claimed that activists of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam would extend their support to the PPP nominee. They criticized the political role of Jamaat-i-Islami which, according to them, had ditched the JUI (F) and fielded its own man in the race. They said the PPP would defeat both the MMA and Muslim League candidates on the seat.

"The federal government, Salim Saifullah Khan, had done nothing for the development of his own district, Lakki Marwat, where people were short of basic amenities. "Even today, local people travel for miles to fetch drinking water, which the Saifullahs had failed to provide them over the last 50 years," they added.