By-poll result vindicates ANP’s stance on rigging: Hoti

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday said that the by-elections proved that the party’s mandate was stolen in the July 25 general election.

Speaking at the provincial council meeting here, ANP’s provincial president Ameer Haider Hoti said that certain forces had manipulated the results. ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan, Senior Vice-President Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and provincial General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain were also present at the meeting.

He said ANP would have been in power had the general election been transparent. He claimed that the ANP’s victory in by-polls showed that masses were fed up with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The former chief minister said political parties had a unanimous view about rigging in the general election, adding, that Pakhtun leadership had been left out of the Parliament under a conspiracy.

Haider Hoti said that nobody could keep ANP away from the people. The ANP leader said that across-the-board accountability was a must for making the country corruption-free. However, he said that accountability of politicians was an easy task for everyone. The country had always suffered due to the politics of revenge, he said, and advised the government to avoid pushing the country back to 90s.