MARDAN: Major political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami National Party (ANP), have started lobbying to drum up support for the formation of district government in Mardan. Total 3,162 elected members, including 112 district members, 96 tehsil council members, 35 Takht Bhai tehsil council members, 26 Katlang tehsil council members and members of 178 village and 53 neighbourhood councils will take oath of their offices today. Among the 112 district council members PTI got 46 seats, including some of the independents who joined the PTI, ANP got 34 seats, JUI-F got 14 seats, PPP got eight seats, JI got four, PML-N got three seats. The ANP, JUI-F, PPP and JI forged an alliance at the district level to jointly contest the May 30 local government elections. However, after the polls, the PPP accused the ANP of ditching it in the local government elections particularly in Mardan. The ANP got 34 seats, JUI-F 14 and the PPP eight seats. The PTI has 46 seats and JI four. The Imran Mohmand group got two seats and it had yet to make a decision to either join the ANP or the PTI. The two independents have also not yet decided to join a political party. The ANP claimed it could form the district government in Mardan.
