ANP fails to win a single tehsil in its stronghold Charsadda

PESHAWAR: Like the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Pakhtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP) could not secure the tehsil council seats even at its stronghold local bodies polls held on December 19.

However, the ANP leadership expressed satisfaction with the results and said the party mobilised its workers despite threats from the militants.

In its first phase, the local government polls were held in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including three newly merged tribal districts Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur.

According to unofficial and unverified results, the Pakhtun nationalist party managed to win at least one mayoral and five tehsil council seats in Mardan, Peshawar, Swabi, Nowshera and Buner districts while the party claimed that dozens of its candidates were elected at village council and neighbourhood councils mostly in the Peshawar valley.

The initial results showed that many ANP candidates remained runners-up and lost by low margin against their rivals.

On the eve of local bodies polls, a candidate of the Awami National Party for mayoral seat in Dera Ismael Khan and district president of the ANP Omar Khitab Sherani was shot dead in Dera City by unidentified armed men that also caused postponement of the election.

On the polling day, a vehicle carrying ANP workers was targeted allegedly by a suicide bomber in Bajaur district, where two persons were killed and six injured.

In a statement to media on Tuesday, ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan said the party candidates and workers had not contested against their rivals but also fought against terrorists on the election day.

“I am very much satisfied with the enthusiasm and commitment of the party workers and candidates during the election campaign and polling day for local body polls in 17 districts of the province,” the ANP leader said.

The ANP leader also claimed that there was an option of seat adjustment and electoral alliance with other opposition parties but the ANP leadership opted for solo flight. “Even some of our candidates defeated provincial ministers, their relatives and government machinery in the local body polls,” he added.

Talking to The News, a provincial leader of the ANP and former candidate for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Arbab Usman Khan said that there were two provincial ministers, two Members National Assembly and a Provincial Assembly Member from the ruling PTI in his constituency but despite that the ANP candidate Arbab Usman Khan won with huge margin.

He was referring to provincial ministers Taimur Salim Jhagra, Ishtiaq Urmarh, PTI MNA Arbab Amir and Nasir Khan Musazai and PTI MPA Arbab Jehandad Khan in Tehsil Chamkani constituency.

He accused the provincial ministers and PTI parliamentarians of actively running campaigns for the PTI candidate in Tehsil Chamkani where they used state machinery and provincial government staff in support of the ruling party candidate. “We have not only defeated the PTI candidate but also the provincial government and its machinery in our constituency,” said Arbab Usman Khan, who had rejoined the ANP before the local body polls.

The ANP could not secure a single tehsil council in its stronghold Charsadda where the party fielded candidates for three tehsil councils.