CHITRAL: Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam have entered into an electoral alliance for the forthcoming local bodies polls in Chitral.

Announcing the formation of the alliance, the JI district emir Maghfirat Shah and that of JUI Qari Abdur Rahman Qureshi said that the alliance was the need of the hour ‘to rid the people of the myriad of problems’.

They said that out of the 24 union councils of the district, they had targeted 16, equally distributing them between the two parties.

They said that the JI had been allocated the union councils of Arandu, Drsoh-II, Ayun, Chitral-I, Denin, Kosht, Mulkhow and Shagram, while the union councils of Ashrait, Drosh-I, Sheshi Koh, Broze, Chitral-II, Koh, Oveer and Terich had been given to JUI.

The leaders said that the party winning more seats in the first phase of the election would be unconditionally supported by the other party in the second phase of the election for the tehsil and district chairmen.

The JI and JUI leaders vowed to mobilise workers to ensure a landslide victory in the local bodies’ polls.

They said that the two parties had secured electoral victory after they joined each other to form Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), and that the same spirit would be replicated in the upcoming elections in Chitral.

Responding to a question, they refuted any type of acrimony between the leaders of the two parties in the past and said they had been contesting elections from their separate platforms but never harboured any hostility to each other.

The president of All Teachers Association (ATA), local chapter, Muzaffaruddin Khan and general secretary Sardar Hussain Khan have appreciated the high ups of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University for allowing its dealing office in Chitral to deliver degrees to local students.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, they said that the students had to travel to Sheringal in Upper Dir to get degrees.

The teachers’ leaders said the university had been providing facilities at the doorsteps of the students in Chitral through its dealing office.

They thanked vice-chancellor Professor Khan Bahadur Marwat, registrar Badshah Hussain and controller of examinations Mohammad Ali Khan for taking special interest in the matter.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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