MANSEHRA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl on Wednesday announced its electoral alliance with Pakistan Peoples Party for the office of the presiding officers in all the five tehsil councils of Mansehra district.

“We wanted to go into an electoral alliance with the PML-N, but the latter’s leadership didn’t come oblige,” Hadaytullah Shah, JUI-F Khyber Pakhtunkhwa deputy emir, told reporters here.

He said that PML-N leader Captain retired Mohammad Safdar had issued irresponsible statements against JUI-F’s alliance with PPP. He claimed that Mr Safdar and former federal religious affairs minister Sardar Mohammad Yusuf didn’t want to sit with the JUI-F’s local Shura for the seat adjustment despite their leadership’s wish.

“The PML-N wants our party’s support for its aspirants for the office of presiding officers in Mansehra, Baffa-Pakhal, Balakot, Darband and Oghi tehsil councils, and approached us for this many times, but in return, the party was unwilling to support even a single aspirant of our party in all these tehsils,” the party’s deputy emir said.

The former senator said JUI-F was one of the leading political parties in the country and could make its political moves independently. “That’s why our Shura has decided to go into an electoral alliance with PPP instead of PML-N,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2023