Pakistan Times!

SWAT: Political activities in Swat are visibly slow as political parties and the contested candidates are confined to the hujras for their election campaign and are holding one to one meetings. District Swat has two National and seven provincial constituencies with a total of 8,15,436 registered voters. A total of 569 polling stations have been established in the district for the February 18 polls.

However, people are not participating in the political and electoral activities due to uncertain and tense situation besides a military operation in the valley. Political parties and their candidates were already cautious as Maulana Fazlullah has threatened them.

Political climate in the area is still sad because of the tragic death of the grandson of former Wali Swat Mian Gul Jehanzeb and the provincial candidate of PML (Q) from PF-81 Swat II Mian Gul Asfandyar Ammer Zeb along with seven other companions in a bomb blast on December 28 near Manglawar.

Since that tragic incident coupled with the ongoing operation in the district, election candidates are cautious and are restricted to their hujras. There is no open election campaign and the candidates have also stopped their advertisements in the local press. Tense political situation is compounded by the military operation on the one hand and segmented influence of local Taliban on the other. Meanwhile, the writ of the government is not visible, as claimed by the authorities. However, the local administration asserted that they will be able to hold the elections whatever may come.-SANA

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