No-trust motion passed against Torghar district nazim, deputy

MANSEHRA: The District Nazim of Torghar was voted out as he became the first nazim in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against whom a no-confidence move met with success.

In the 23-member Distroct Council, 16 voted against District Nazim Noor Mohammad and the Naib Nazim Shamzad Khan on Monday.Councillors from three parties joined hands to vote them out in the no-trust move. They included six councillors of Awami National Party (ANP), eight of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and two of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). These parties are often at loggerheads, but their councillors set aside their differences because all of them were fed up of the District Nazim after the latter’s short term in office. The ANP and PTI councillors had been warned by their party leadership not to become part of the move, but they defied party discipline to vote out the District Nazim and Naib Nazim.

The leaders of both the parties, including Chief Minister Pervez Khattak of the PTI and former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti of the ANP, had directed their respective party workers not to become part of the no-confidence motion against the District Nazim. 

The jubilant councillors greeted each other after the voting.“This is not our achievement alone, rather it is the achievement of people of Torghar, who were denied their rights since installation of the district government,” said Dilroz Khan, a hopeful for the District Nazim office and the moving spirit of the no-trust move.

He said their alliance was based on principles and this was the reason they achieved the desired results even though some of the councillors were arrested.Torghar, a small district in Hazara division, has become the first district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where a no-confidence motion was tabled against district nazim and district naib nazim.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Torghar Matloobur Rehman told reporters that 16 votes were polled against the district nazim and naib district nazim in the no-confidence motion. He said he had dispatched the details of the proceedings to the secretary of the Local Government Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for further action.