Sitara Ayaz claims victory in her UC polling

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) leader Sitara Ayaz said her party may have lost the election from her native Swabi, but she kept up her record of enabling the ANP candidates to win from her union council.

Sitara Ayaz, who served as a provincial minister in the ANP-PPP coalition government from 2008-2013 and also remained a Senator, said despite heavy odds the ANP candidate for National Assembly, Mohammad Islam Khan, and for provincial assembly, Gul Zamin Shah, won from union council Jhanda-Boqo and its surroundings by a majority of votes.

"Though PTI's Asad Qaiser won both the National Assembly and provincial assembly seats, he failed to make an impact in our area even though three PTI women leaders Ayesha Naeem, Nasim Hayat and Meraj Humayun from Jhanda village had remained MPAs," she pointed out.

Sitara Ayaz argued that contacts with the people and development work had enabled her and the ANP in these four villages to receive more votes than the other parties.