Aimal says ANP fully prepared for general elections

PESHAWAR: Provincial president of the Awami National Party (ANP) Aimal Wali Khan said on Sunday his party was fully prepared for the upcoming general elections and had nominated candidates for almost all National Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats in the province.

Addressing a party workers convention in PK-75, Peshawar constituency, he accused former chief ministers Pervez Khattak and Mehmood Khan of corruption and irregularities during the almost 10-years Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He demanded the accountability of both the former chief ministers, adding that changing political loyalties could not save them. 

“For the last 10 years the PTI has played with the sentiments of the people of the province and landed the province in huge debts,” the ANP leader said and added that the former rulers must be made accountable for their alleged irregularities and corruption in mega projects.

The ANP leader put under question the intra-party election of the PTI and asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to take notice of the so-called polls within the party.Aimal Wali Khan said the ANP had rendered great sacrifices for peace, prosperity and rule of law in the country and would never deviate from its principled stand on provincial rights and supremacy of parliament and democracy.

“Our leaders and workers had laid down their lives for peace on the land and would continue to play a constitutional and democratic role to protect the rights and resources of the province,” he said.

He believed that some elements wanted to rollback the 18th amendment to the Constitution that had given rights to smaller provinces over their own resources.Aimal Wali Khan criticized some politicians and accused them of again using the religious card ahead of the general elections.

“These elements are more interested in reaching Islamabad than serving Islam,” the ANP leader said and added that the caretaker government must play its constitutional role to hold free, fair and transparent elections in the country.

The workers convention was also addressed by Arbab Usman Khan, the ANP candidate for PK-75, Peshawar, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, candidate for National Assembly, and other party leaders.