KHAR: Leaders of political parties and poll candidates in Bajaur tribal district on Monday condemned the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for requesting the Election Commission of Pakistan to postpone the first-ever provincial assembly elections in the erstwhile Fata for 20 days.

Addressing a joint press conference at Bajaur Press Club, they termed the request a bid by the provincial government to derail the Fata-KP merger process, and warned to launch a protest movement if the elections were delayed even for a single day.

The press conference was addressed by JI local chapter acting chief Mohammad Hameed, JI nominee for PK-101, Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, PPP Bajaur president Aurangzeb, ANP general secretary Nisar Khan Baz, ANP candidate for PK-101 Lali Shah, PPP nominee for PK-101 Mohammad Anees Khan and others.

They said the PTI governments both in the centre and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were not interested in conducting the provincial assembly elections in the tribal districts on the scheduled date of July 2.

They claimed that the provincial government, fearing electoral defeat in the assembly elections, had made the request for postponement of the polls. They described the points mentioned in the provincial government’s letter sent to the ECP seeking to delay the polls irrelevant and invalid, saying law and order situation in the entire tribal districts was satisfactory.

They questioned how the law and order situation was going to be improved in just 20 days, and urged the provincial government to withdraw the request as holding of provincial assembly elections was vital for sustainable development of the tribal districts.

They said all the political parties and poll candidates wanted the elections held as scheduled.

Meanwhile, political parties started their official election campaign for the July 2 provincial assembly elections in the tribal district on Sunday.

Sunday and Monday were the busy days for political parties after the ECP released the final list of poll candidates for the three provincial assembly constituencies in Bajaur, PK-100, PK-101 and PK-102.

According to information obtained from different areas of the district, more than 40 events and gatherings were held by different political parties and independent candidates on Sunday and Monday.

Most of the evens were organised by JI, JUI-F, PPP and PTI.

Workers of different political parties started displaying posters and banners of their poll candidates in different areas. They also installed their party flags at electricity poles.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2019