Second phase of LG elections: Parties contact PPP for seat adjustment in Hazara

MANSEHRA: Political activities have started ahead of the second phase of the local government elections, as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and other opposition parties have established contact with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for seat adjustment across the Hazara division.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and even Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf are in contact with us for seats adjustment in Hazara division’s eight districts,” Malik Abdul Waheed, the PPP’s divisional president in Hazara, told reporters here on Sunday.

Abdul Waheed, who is one of the three members ticketing committee of PPP for the Local government’s elections in Hazara division, said that the political parties contacted the party’s provincial general secretary and members of selection committee, Shujah Salam Khan, and him for the seats adjustments and they would go for it after setting all the modalities.

“We would only award tickets to aspirants contesting elections for the offices of tehsil nazimschairmen across the division,” he added. The PPP leader said that his party would award tickets to the tehsil chairmen’s offices in Mansehra, Haripur, Abbottabad, Torghar, Kolai-Palas, Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan districts.

“We don’t want to create rifts among the workers and activists awarding tickets to a handful of them for villages and neighbourhood councils,” Abdul Waheed said. He added that in the current situation not a single party could secure win on the maximum tehsil’s offices in the division and it would be better for them to opt for seat adjustments.

Waheed said that the nomination committee would start issuing tickets to aspirants from next week. “We would first award tickets to tehsils aspirants in the Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Palas and Torghar and the selection committee would move to these districts and finalise the process there,” he said.