Political mileage: Torghar district nazim to be removed through no-confidence motion

ANP, PTI join hands to de-seat nazim, district council session to be held soon

ABBOTABAD:

Torghar district nazim Noor Muhammad is likely to become the first casualty of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013.

This is primarily because his own party is ready to draw strength from the move of its adversary – Awami National Party – which wishes to de-seat him.

Although ANP and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are poles apart ideologically and leaders from either party do not spare any opportunity to castigate each other, both parties stand united when it concerns their political mileage.

This was proved when Torghar district council members belonging to ANP, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and PTI joined hands to submit a no-confidence resolution against the nazim on Tuesday.

Polic(k)ing

It was reported ANP and PTI have struck a power-sharing agreement. The former agreed to extend its support to JUI-F candidate Maulana Obaidur Rehman, who belongs to the group of former ANP provincial minister Namroz Khan, for the office of new district naib nazim.

However, would avoid fielding any district councillor who was directly elected on an ANP ticket as face-saving mechanism.

According to insiders, sitting nazim Advocate Noor Muhammad and naib nazim Shamzad Khan were elected in independent capacity with the support of sitting JUI-F MPA Zareen Gul Khan’s group. However, they later joined PTI and were elected nazim and naib nazim.

Since they were not ideologues of PTI, party workers and councillors expressed reservations about them and wanted to remove them through a no-trust motion.

With the consent of PTI provincial chapter, the party’s councillors signed an agreement with ANP and JUI-F to replace Noor Muhammad with PTI worker Dilroz Khan as district nazim and Shamzad Khan with JUI-F member Maulana Obaidur Rehman as naib nazim.

ANP district councillor Said Nawab Gul and JUI-F leader Maulana Obaidur Rehman submitted a no-confidence resolution with local government assistant director who is now bound to hold a session of the district council within seven days.

When contacted, the district nazim was not available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th,  2016.