Hitting out : PTI flays JI minister for ‘mismanagement’

Say Inaytaullah Khan was responsible for May 30 election

PESHAWAR: The two parties may be coalition partners in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, but this did not stop Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s elected district and town council members from flaying Jamaat-e-Islami’s man for “mismanaging” local government elections. They held Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan and his department responsible for what happened on election day.

Make a break for it

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, PTI’s local government representatives called for Inayatullah’s resignation and urged their party to end the coalition with JI. The PTI representatives asked for the formation of an independent commission to investigate mismanagement.

Town councillor Kamran Bangash said JI levelled serious allegations against others despite the fact that its own man was running the LG ministry. He claimed the religious party had been accusing the PTI of mismanagement because its coalition partner was out in the cold.

Bangash also appealed to JI Ameer Sirajul Haq to resign from the Senate as he won the seat with PTI’s assistance.

“Let Haq contest again and he will see how a young PTI candidate will win,” Bangash said, boasting about his party’s popularity. “It was not a tripartite, but a six-partite alliance against PTI and the results will be the same even if there is a re-election.”

This is not the first time PTI and JI traded blows over supposed mismanagement during LG elections. K-P JI chief Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan had earlier said the PTI government used the administration and police to rig the polls. He added the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) performance was also not up to par as it failed to train polling staff and presiding officers.

ANP-W demands re-polling

Awami National Party-Wali Chief Begum Naseem Wali Khan has asked for LG re-elections in the province.

She also refused to attend the all parties conference (APC) organised by the provincial government on Tuesday. “I will not accuse one party of rigging; it was more of a collective effort,” Wali told the media at the press club.

ANP-W members said the government should not waste time and simply announce re-elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2015.