UPPER DIR: The decision of Jamaat-e-Isami (JI) chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, to boycott the upcoming general elections created a rift in the party in its stronghold, Upper Dir district, as a panel of four candidates including two former MPAs decided to contest the elections from the party platform. The party divided into two groups, one supporting the boycott and the other advocating participation in elections. They are set to clash with each other as the boycotters vowed to support the boycott decision and take out protest demonstration against the panel using party name. The candidates contesting polls have shown themselves as the party candidates on posters despite a clear-cut announcement by the party amir to stay away from the election as a protest against the sacking of judges.
On December 15, the last date for withdrawing nomination papers, the party’s members provincial assembly in MMA government, Fareed Khan, and Hayat Khan refused to withdraw nomination papers in line with the instruction of the party leadership. Fareed Khan is in the run for PF-92-Kohistan Dir Upper-II while Hayat Khan is contesting on PF-93 Upper Dir-III-cum-Lower Dir. Having domination over the party in the district, a member of Sahibzada family, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, opted to contest the election on NA-33 in flagrant violation of the party’s boycott decision.
Similarly, an active worker and son of the wealthy Haji Shah Wali Khan, Rafiullah, didn’t take back his nomination papers he had submitted as covering candidate for former provincial health minister Inayatullah on PF-91 Dir Upper-I. Fareed Khan had conveyed on phone to the returning officer for PF-91 not to accept any application given to him on the behalf of Rafiullah for his withdrawal because he was not going to quit the contest.
Garlanded and escorted by JI workers, Sibghatullah and Rafiullah, marched through Dir bazaar to kick off their election campaign here on Sunday. They also held a public meeting at a local hotel and claimed they were JI candidates. “We are JI candidates. JI is our home and no one can cast us out from it,” Sibghat challenged. Sibghat, Rafiullah, Shah Wali Khan, Malik Faiz Muhammad and others said they had communicated to the party central leadership that party workers in the district were against the boycott. “We had made it clear to the party that boycott decision could split the party but it ignored our warning,” they added. The speakers said the panel was fielded on the demand of the party workers to save it from destruction. They claimed the party activists were fully supporting the panel, rejecting boycott. “We will not withdraw from the contest. However, we will convince the local party leaders on supporting us,” they hoped.
In line with JI boycott decision, the amir of Upper Dir chapter and former MNA, Maulana Asadullah, Inayatullah and Fasihullah took back their nomination papers on December 15. Addressing party workers, they made it clear the JI had no substitute panel in the district and all the nominees of JI had withdrawn their papers as directed by the party leadership. They insisted they were not JI’s nominees, asking workers to boycott the election and do not use their votes. To honour party decision, they hoped that Fareed and company would abandon the elections. However, they warned to take out protest demonstration against those party workers contesting the elections. “We will go door-to-door and mosque-to-mosque to make the boycott decision a success,” Fasihullah vowed. It merits a mention that party local officer bearers did not attend the public meeting of the dissident group.
Meanwhile, reacting to JI decision to field a panel for the next general elections, PPPP leader Muhammad Rashid Advocate said that it was demonstrative of the party’s double standard in politics. “The panel has the backing of the party. Withdrawing papers by other nominees is a drama,” he alleged, adding it was betrayal with the lawyer community. He expressed astonishment as to how the covering candidates could go against the party decision. “If they are violating party policy, why they were not expelled from the party?” he asked. However, he said that PPPP would defeat the whole panel in the coming elections, as the party had full support of the people in the district.
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