PESHAWAR: The internal differences and groupings in the Awami National Party (ANP) that started well ahead of general election 2018 continues to further polarize the party as on Monday the party issued show-cause notices to three workers and terminated the membership of a former Member Provincial Assembly (MPA).
A statement issued from Bacha Khan Markaz said that ANP’s provincial president Ameer Haider Hoti had issued show-cause notices to Said Fareen, Sadeedur Rehman and Himayatullah Mayar while the party cancelled the membership of former MPA Pervez Ahmad Khan.
The ANP had directed its workers to support the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate as the joint candidate of the opposition in Shangla. However, the party’s Shangla chapter led by Said Fareen refused to accept the decision.
The district chapter announced support to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Shaukat Yousafzai who contested election against the PML-N’s Muhammad Rishad Khan.The Election Commission of Pakistan had declared the results in the constituency null and void as less than 10 percent women had exercised the right to vote in the July 25 general election.
Besides these two leaders of Shangla, ANP also issued a show-cause notice to former district nazim of Mardan, Himayatullah Mayar, for violating party discipline. Himayatullah Mayar told The News that there was a problem with the by-election of the party candidate Ahmad Khan Bahadur.
He said the party was required to consult the party workers about the candidate before awarding him or her ticket.He said the district chapter differed with the party on the distribution of tickets in the by-election and had been asking the party to follow the laid down procedure.
“The procedure had been approved by the provincial council and could be undone by the council only,” he added.Himayatullah Mayar claimed the party workers did not like the candidate for not serving the electorate and the party interests when he was a member of the provincial assembly in his previous term.
He said the party had awarded ticket without following the procedure, adding the workers accepted the decision but demanded the candidate to address their reservations.
However, he said the candidate did not attend the district chapter meeting. He said the meeting decided not to take part in the election if the candidate refused to attend the meeting of the district unit that demanded clarification from him.
Ahmad Khan Bahadur had not contested the election in the 2013 general election as provincial president Haider Hoti had contested the election on both provincial and national assemblies’ seats in the constituency. Ahmad Khan Bahadur contested the election after the provincial president vacated the seat and won it.
In the 2018 general election, Haider Hoti again contested the election on both national and provincial assemblies’ seats and won both seats.
The ANP provincial president vacated the provincial seat and the party awarded ticket to Ahmad Khan Bahadur again for the by-election.
Similarly, ANP cancelled party membership of Pervez Ahmad Khan for his alleged involvement in anti-party activities. Interestingly, media reports had claimed that Pervez Ahmad Khan has already quit ANP.
The PTI leader and former chief minister Pervez Khattak will visit the residence of Pervez Ahmad Khan on Wednesday where he may announce joining PTI.
Also, ANP awarded tickets to Shah Nawaz Khanzada and Sarfaraz Khan Jadoon in Swabi but later withdrew their candidature for the general election 2018. The two leaders contested the election as independents.
At that time Shah Nawaz Khanzada had told this scribe that the party was faced with schism that would come to the fore during the intra-party election.