MANSEHRA, Jan 7: The differences in the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Hazara division, have intensified over the issue of awarding the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal ticket for contesting senate election to district Nazim of Mansehra Mohammad Azam Khan Swati.

A spokesman of the JUI(F) said a party meeting held two days back in Abbottabad, with party’s provincial general secretary Maulana Gul Naseeb in the chair, unanimously nominated the JUI(F) Mansehra district Amir Maulana Syed Hidayatullah Shah from Hazara for the senate ticket of the MMA.

According to him, it was decided in the meeting that no newcomer would be allowed to enter the MMA folds through backdoor for realization of his own vested interests. It was also decided that if Hidayatullah Shah could not contest the senate election for any reason, the second choice would be Shah Abdul Qadir, son of Maulana Syed Ghulam Nabi Shah of Jabouri, he added.

The role of JUI(F) leader Mufti Kifayatullah and others, he further said, was highly criticized in the meeting who were busy in supporting Swati and were issuing false statements to the press in the name of JUI(F) central leaders.

The role of Swati in the Oct 10 election was also condemned in the meeting, and he was held responsible for the defeat of the JUI(F) candidates in Hazara division, he added.

Meanwhile, Maulana Rafiq-ur-Rehman Qamar, Amir of the MMA Mansehra district, talking to this correspondent, said the Ulema and the sincere workers of the party actually deserved to be elected to the upper house of the parliament.

He said no one could lure the Ulema on the basis of his wealth or dollars.