SWABI, June 4: Leaders of the Collective Independent Swabi Group announced here on Tuesday that they would contest the forthcoming election from the platform of the group.

They were speaking at a function held to unveil plaques of the Saleem Khan-Palodand Road and Saleem Khan Causeway.

The district Nazim, Sher Zaman Sher, who unveiled the plaques, said those who had hurled allegations and opposed the district government development projects wanted to scuttle the process of progress and prosperity launched in the district.

In an oblique reference to the Awami National Party, he said these people had kept Swabi a backward district for the last 50 years. In contrast to their performance, he continued, the new local government made efforts for the construction of roads, provision of health and education facilities and for many other development projects.

He said that two degree colleges, one each for girls and boys in Karnal Sher Killi, a girls college in Topi, a vocational college in Anbar, and many link roads were on various stages of completion for which the government had allocated Rs10.1 million.

He claimed that Swabi had been upgraded in 1988 from tehsil to the district level by the then governor Fazal-i-Haq on his request and added that the incumbent governor had also taken great interest in the resolution of the city’s problems.

He said that efforts were under way to increase the district government tenure form three years to five years. He, however, admitted that there were loopholes in the local bodies system.

The district Naib Nazim, Mohammad Jamil, said that decisions about Swabi’s fate had always been made in Walibagh, the residence of ANP leader Wali Khan. Now, he added, people of Swabi had awakened and rejected the ANP tactics. He said that the defeat of ANP’s candidates in the election for district and tehsil Nazims was a proof of this claim. He was confident that the ANP leaders would meet with the same fate in the upcoming general elections.

Tehsil Swabi Nazim Masood Jabar said that Rs210 million had been spent on various projects during the last nine months by the district government.

“Gone are the days when the Walibagh leaders claimed that any one who got an ANP ticket would emerge victorious from Swabi,” he said.