PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Peshawar President Sabir Hussain Awan on Saturday stepped down from his post as the party’s provincial head following the defeat of JI’s candidate in the NA-4 by-elections.
He said that the decision to step down from his post was his own.
According to a local media outlet, Awan said that he felt a “moral obligation” to resign from his position following JI’s defeat in the NA-4 by-elections.
He has sent his resignation to the party’s provincial council.
On Thursday, the PTI succeeded in retaining the National Assembly seat. Its candidate Arbab Amir Ayub bagged 45,734 votes, followed by ANP’s Khushdil Khan with 24,874 votes and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Nasir Khan Musazai with 24,790 votes.
JI’s Wasil Farooq came in the sixth position, with 7,668 votes, after Asad Gulzar Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Allama Dr Mohammad Shafique Ameeni of Tehreek-e-Labbaik.
Jan had secured the third position in the general elections of 2013. The party’s share of votes dropped from 11.9% in the 2013 general elections to only 5.7% in the recent by-poll.
Awan said that his party had run a fair and effective election campaign but it was all a game of money and government resources.
Coming in sixth in the NA-4 by-poll, the JI performed even worse than the newly formed religio-political party, the Tehreek-Labbaik Pakistan.
