Mansehra Tehsil Nazim elected

MANSEHRA: Umar Farooq was elected Mansehra tehsil nazim on Monday. The differences that emerged among Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders over the distribution of the party ticket led to the defeat as its contender for the tehsil nazim, Zahid Aziz, withdrew from the race just before polling and surprisingly voted for Umar Farooq.

The newly elected nazim, who later took the oath of his office, secured 36 of 38 votes. As many as 16 members of the council almost all of PML-N abstained from the election session chaired by the returning officer, Mohammad Moguis Sanaullah, Mansehra assistant commissioner.

The PML-N being the single largest party having a total of 29 councillors in a house of 54 councillors suffered a defeat because of revolt by its members. A meeting of PTI, which was held last night with Member Provincial Assembly Babar Saleem Swati in the chair, had decided to field Umar Farooq, a leader of PML-N dissidents as its contender for the office of tehsil nazim.