BAJAUR: Two disgruntled activists of Pakistan Peoples Party on Wednesday refused to withdraw their candidature from two provincial assembly seats here in favour of the party nominees.

Sources in PPP’s local chapter told Dawn that Aurangzeb Khan, the party’s former district president, and Mohammad Anees Khan, PPP general secretary, were contesting from PK-22 and PK-21, respectively, as independents.

They disclosed that a PPP delegation sent by the party’s provincial leader and former lawmaker Sayed Akhunzada Chattan held separate meetings with the disgruntled leaders to convince them to withdraw from the contest in favour of party nominees, Akhunzada Chattan and Shakeel Khan, but they refused to do so.

The sources said the delegates informed them that their decision to contest polls as independents was against the party policy and would dent support for the ticket holders.

However, both Mr Anees and Mr Aurangzeb, who is the brother-in-law of Akhunzada Chatan, told the delegation that they were not ready to withdraw from the contest at this stage as they had already launched their election campaign.

The sources claimed it was the third time that the party’s local leadership had requested the disgruntled leaders to withdraw from the poll race, but to no avail. They said the two leaders chose to contest as independents after the party’s parliamentary committee ‘ignored’ them in award of tickets.

Another party source said it would be difficult for the PPP nominees to win the seats if the disgruntled workers didn’t withdraw.

In another development, the sources said another PPP disgruntled activist, Malik Saidur Rahman, who is contesting from PK-19 as an independent, has withdrawn in favour of Jamaat-i-Islami nominee Malik Mohammad Ayaz Khan instead of the PPP ticket holder despite the local leadership’s several attempts.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2024