PESHAWAR, Aug 25: The major opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are likely to devise an arrangement for fielding joint candidates in coming local government (LG) elections in order to defeat candidates of the ruling parties.

Some senior activists of different political parties in background interviews said that people had attached great expectations to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government, but the PTI seemed unable to materialise its election manifesto with the present ‘immature and non-serious’ members of the assembly.

However, they said that the opposition parties would not be able to bring the people out in the local government elections unless they devised a joint strategy.

The workers of opposition parties, they said, had already been annoyed with their leaders and none of the parties would be able to win the LG election in individual capacity.

“Our party has so far not discussed the issue of alliance for LG elections, but in my opinion it is necessary (to win the polls),” said Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan, provincial spokesman of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-F), on Sunday when asked for his comments on the issue.

Mr Jan said that in the prevailing situation all the parties should join hands to throw out the provincial coalition government and save the province. He said that during the campaign for recent by-elections the leaders of different parties stressed the need for joining hands for any future elections. “If we unite then none of the PTI candidate will be in position to win the elections,” he claimed.

The JUI-F spokesman said that he was in favour of alliance because all the parties had judged their individual position in the general elections. However, he said that every party was morally bound to keep words and ensure casting of votes in favour of the joint candidates.

He also said that for the time being there was no chance of local bodies elections till end of the year because the opposition parties, especially Awami National Party, had already rejected the PTI plan for LG elections.

When contacted, Pakistan People’s Party provincial vice-president MPA Night Yasmeen Orakzai also said that the experiment of alliance in the recent by-elections had proved successful.

“Our party is yet to announce its plan, but joint strategies may prove successful if workers of all the parties sincerely supported each others’ candidates,” she said.

She said that the PPP workers had fully supported the ANP candidate Ghulam Ahmed Bilour in Peshawar and thus he succeeded. She opposed the government’s policy of decreasing LB’s tenure from four to three years and holding elections for village councils on non-party basis. She claimed that the rulers wanted to use the local bodies for next general elections.

Referring to policies of the provincial government, she said that majority of the MPAs were not happy with its plan to reduce funds because every member wanted to do something for the development of their constituency, but it would be very difficult now.

Another PPP leader Syed Ayub Shah said that following the by-elections every party now had the chance to evaluate its position so as to take a decision for any future alliance.

“In my view, the PPP leadership should first develop a proper party system and then take decisions about alliances because we have an opportunity of several months to re-organise the party at all levels,” he said.

Efforts were made to talk to provincial spokesman of Awami National Party Mian Iftikahr Hussain on the issue, but he could not be approached on phone. However, one of his party leaders said that the ANP was yet to review its policy in this regard.

He also said that whatever the ANP would decide would be made public through a press conference. He predicted that the PTI would soon lose its weight in the province.