SWABI, Oct 11: Leaders of the dissident group of Awami National Party (ANP), Swabi district, on Tuesday decided in a meeting that they would not reply to the show cause notices issued to them by Haji Rehmanullah, saying they did not accept his election as the party’s district president.

Mr Rehmanullah was elected unopposed president of the ANP Swabi for the fifth consecutive term a few days ago.

The dissident group led by party’s former provincial general secretary Salim Khan and former Swabi district general secretary Jehan Zeb Khan, had also established parallel bodies of the party in three of the six provincial assembly constituencies.

Sources that in PK-31, Swabi-1, the group’s party office-bearers included Abdul Manan as president and Fida Mohammad general secretary; in PK-35, Swabi-V, Fakhar Zaman president and Mohammad Arif general secretary while in PK-33, Swabi-III Mohammad Younas Bacha had been picked as president and Hidayat Ali general secretary.

They said that the group would also elect office-bearers in the other three constituencies.

The ANP workers affiliated with Mr Zeb group said that they had accepted all the demands of the party provincial and central leaders for the election of Mr Rehmanullah, but the latter had resorted to cheating by ignoring them in the party activities and starting secret nomination of the office-bearers.

When contacted, Tamraz Khan, the party’s district general secretary, told this correspondent that Mr Rehmanullah would take action against those violating the party rules and there would be no compromise on such issues.

He said that the party knew about the “unconstitutional activities” of Salim Khan and Jehan Zeb Khan and their supporters, who were bent upon harming the party position in the district.

In reply to a question, he said that the party’s district president had already issued show cause notices to Mr Zeb, Mr Salim and Fakhar Zaman. He said that they would not tolerate violation of party discipline by anyone.