TANK, Sep 16: Unveiling the illicit role of Haji Sher Azam Khan Wazir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Provincial Minister for Industries, Commerce, Labor and Technical Education, in manipulating the voters list, Dilawar Khan Mehsud said that scores of Mehsud tribe votes have been illegally enrolled by Sher Azam to his own constituency.
Talking to Lahore Times on Sunday, Dilawar Khan Mehsud, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate for NA-42 South Waziristan Agency (SWA), said that Mehsud tribe deserted their native SWA after security forces launched military operation against the Taliban fighters loyal to banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud in 2009 and the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) started living in various parts across the country.
Dilawar Mehsud said that Mehsud families started to live in rented houses in Tank, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and other parts of the country since 2009, adding that government has repatriated only few families to SWA recently while thousands of Mehsud IDPs are still living in distress in separate areas.
Mehsud said that taking advantage of the Mehsud IDPs helplessness, KPK Provincial Minster Sher Azam Khan Wazir son of Abdur Rehman Khan Wazir who was elected to the provincial assembly in 2008 election from PF-71 Bannu-2, has manipulated the votes of Mehsud IDPs into his own constituency which is clear violation of law.
Dilawar demanded of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take strict notice of the incident because transparency in the next general election couldn’t be maintained in the presence of such illegal practices of the people in the corridor of power.
Dilawar prayed the ECP to punish all those involved in malpractices and also asked the ECP to recover and enroll back the Mehsud IDPs votes into their respective constituency in order to avoid further mess.
Mehsud said that soon N-league would resort to the apex court of Pakistan to bring back to SWA the illegally registered votes of Mehsud IDPs. He demanded of the government to take notice of the grave issue and also demanded compensation for the Mehsud IDPs for their destroyed houses in SWA.