MPA-elect from Mohmand questions delay in oath-taking

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly member-elect from PK-103 Mohmand tribal district on Wednesday said that the delay in oath-taking of the newly elected representatives from the merged districts showed the government’s lack of capacity or priority.

Talking to The News, Nisar Ahmed, who won the election for KP Assembly from Mohmand district, said the government should have celebrated this historic event as it was the first-ever election for the provincial legislature from the erstwhile Fata.

“The government’s lack of interest in oath-taking can also be interpreted that the ruling party leadership is not happy with the election results,” the Awami National Party leader said.

Nisar Ahmad was born in Major Hujam Killay in Ekkaghund tehsil in Mohmand district on April 4, 1968. He has done associate diploma in Chemical Engineering from Government College of Technology and BA from University of Peshawar as a private candidate. He contested and lost election in 1997, 2013 and 2018 from Mohmand district for the National Assembly.

Nisar Ahmad, who won the recent election by securing 11,258 votes, said that he had been participating in political activities since 1985 when he got admission in college.

He was the only ANP candidate to win a seat out of the 16 for which election was held in the erstwhile Fata for the provincial assembly.

When asked whether he had electoral alliance with the other independently elected MPA from Mohmand, Abbasur Rehman, Nisar Ahmad said these were mere speculation, saying that he had no arrangements with him before the election.

He claimed that Bilal Rehman, brother of Abbasur Rehman, supported the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) candidate in the election. Nisar Ahmad’s family is residing in Islamabad since 2011 as his children are studying at schools in the federal capital.

Commenting about the law and order situation in his constituency, the MPA-elect said that the overall situation had improved, but there were still some militant elements in Dawezai area. Some incidents of kidnapping for ransom have been reported in Dawezai, he claimed.

When asked about the role of his party chief’s public rally in his constituency during the election campaign, he said that people in his constituency supported him for his services. However, he admitted that Asfandyar Wali Khan’s public rally strengthened the voters’ trust in him.

He said that merged tribal districts have huge potential for political parties to establish strong bases there. “The people in these areas take keen interest in political activities and political parties should tap that potential for the development of the area,” he argued.