SWABI: The district leadership of Jamaat-i-Islami has conveyed to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders that they would not support the no-confidence motion tabled against the Swabi tehsil nazim Wahid Shah, according to sources.

The voting on the no-confidence motion is scheduled to be held on Thursday. The total strength of the house is 22 and at present nine members of the council belong to PTI, six to Jamaat-i-Islami, three to PML-N, and one each to ANP, PPP and JUI-F. Tabassum, a female councillor has resigned from her seat.

The sources said that earlier the PTI and JI talks failed to finalaise a consensus on the issue. The JI team was led by its district chief Mehmoodul Hassan and PTI by its district president Anwar Haqdad.

They said that JI demanded that they should be given the nazim slot, which the PTI leaders refused by saying that they had the majority in the house. However, the JI leaders said that their Shura had made a decision that the nazim’s slot should be given to them.

A PTI leader, who participated in the talks, said that when their negotiations failed they told the JI leaders to allow the council members take their own decision on the motion.

The JI leaders said that only three months were left in the completion of constitutional term of the local government and they wanted to run the system. In case of failure, the development works would be stopped, they said.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2019