Jirga wants PMLN ticket awarded to ex-nazim

MANSEHRA: A grand jirga attended by different tribes on Tuesday demanded the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentary board to award the ticket to former tehsil nazim Junaid Ali Qasim for the provincial assembly seat of Balakot.

“The jirga first verified an agreement reached between both applicants of PMLN ticket last year. And then declared Qasim as deserving one for the party’s ticket,” Qazi Noman, who had written the agreement, told reporters in Balakot after the jirga.

He said that as the PMLN parliamentary board had withheld the ticket of PK-36-Mansehra-1 after differences between former MPA Mian Ziaur Rehman and former tehsil nazim Junaid Qasim surfaced in the party.

“Ziaur Rehman had struck an agreement with Qasim in a jirga before the local government elections last year that if he didn’t contest the election of Balakot’s tehsil chairman against Ibrahim Shah, he would not contest provincial assembly elections and instead provide him (Qasim) a chance to contest upcoming elections,” Noman said.

He added that his father Qazi Khalilur Rehman, who is the district khateeb (prayer leader), was the witness of the agreement.“The grand jirga of different tribes approached my father and sought his clarification on the issue under Shariah,” Noman said.

He added that as the submission of nomination papers was set to kick off in a couple of days, the jirga of different tribes demanded enforcement of the agreement in letter and spirit.The Supreme Court of Pakistan had upheld the disqualification of Mian Ziaur Rehman by the Peshawar High Court in a fake degree in 2017, but he could now contest the Feb 8, general elections after an amendment in Election Rules by the government.