Sardar Mahtab outmanoeuvres PTI in Abbottabad

ABBOTTABAD: Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan along with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha outsmarted his political opponents and installed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) dissident leader Sardar Sher Bahadur as district nazim of Abbottabad.
Governor Sardar Mahtab arrived in Abbottabad three days prior to the election of district nazim. He is believed to have played his role in the election for district nazim. Sardar Sher Bahadur won the election by a margin of eight votes. The losing candidate was Ali Khan Jadoon, who is the youngest son of former federal minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon. He was PTI candidate.
Everyone was surprised when Sardar Sher Bahadur managed to win the position of the district nazim. Initially, Sardar Shamoon Yar Khan, the youngest son of Sardar Mahtab, was tipped as the PML-N candidate for the Abbottabad district nazim slot.
Later Shaukat Haroon Khan filed nomination papers as the PML-N nominee for the district nazim. Later, he took everyone by surprise by withdrawing nomination papers in favour of Sardar Sher Bahadur. Sher Bahadur is an old PTI leader and had served the party as its district head. He was refused party ticket to contest the May 30 local government elections.
The PTI had awarded ticket to the brother-in-law of provincial Minister for Information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, but he was defeated. Sher Bahadur won the election convincingly as an independent candidate and joined the PTI again. He applied to PTI for the ticket of district nazim, but he didn’t get it. He managed to get elected as the district nazim of Abbottabad, which embarrassed the PTI leadership. The PTI has one Member of National Assembly (MNA) Dr Azhar Jadoon, two provincial ministers, Qalandar Khan Lodhi and Mushtaq Ghani, and MPA Sardar Idrees in Abbottabad.
The PTI has now served show-cause notice to Sardar Sher Bahadur. Talking to The News, Sher Bahadur said he would defend himself legally and politically. He said that Article 78-A and Section 6 clearly stated that floor-crossing clause didn’t apply to the district nazims or naib nazims. “I will clear my position at the party level and in the court of law. I will keep all options open. Our party cannot afford a division in its stronghold,” he asserted.
He said the PTI had also served show-cause notices to MNA Shehryar Afridi, Senator Azam Swati, MPA Amjad Afridi and 53 district councillors. “Can the PTI afford to dump us? If it happens we will form a pressure group in the party and force it to accept us as true representatives of people,” he maintained.