KOHAT: The award of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal tickets to candidates with no significant religious services to their credit has irked the alliance workers and local leaders.

Two-time former minister in PPP and ANP tenures, Syed Qalbe Hassan, had been awarded the MMA ticket for PK-82, Seth Gohar Saifullah Khan, whose father was in PPP, for NA-32, Shaukat Habib, who had previously contested on the ANP ticket, for KP-80 and retired Major Shahdad Khan for PK-81. Following the award of all the four tickets to JUI-F nominees the MMA, Kohat, secretary general Abid Khan had also hinted at resigning in protest.

Meanwhile, district councillor Shah Raza, who refused the PPP ticket for PK-82, told this correspondent that the constituency had been turned into a personal fiefdom by Qalbe Hassan and his uncle former Syed Ibne Ali.

He claimed that according to a secret agreement between the two, Mr Hassan would contest the polls for the last time and would leave the seat for Dr Zulfiqar, son of Syed Ibne Ali, in the next elections.

He said that Mr Hassan this time had not taken the elders of the area into confidence. He also said that award of tickets by the ANP and PPP at the last moment would certainly affect their campaigns.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2018