ANP urges govt to resolve disputes with neighbours

Seeks halt to harassment of Afghan refugees

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Tuesday stressed the need for resolution of disputes with the neighbouring countries through talks and asked the government to stop harassing Afghan refugees and take sincere steps for enhancing ties with Afghanistan.

ANP’s Central General Council met with its central president Asfandyar Wali Khan in the chair. The council meeting was attended by party leaders, senior members and delegates from across the country.

The meeting was also addressed by ANP’s senior vice-president Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, provincial president Ameer Haider Hoti and others. The meeting adopted numerous resolutions about different issues.

In one of the resolutions, the council expressed concern over the crisis like situation in the country due to “failed” internal and external policies. The meeting asked the government to revisit the “outdate and flawed” policies due to which the country has been isolated in the comity of nations.

“Confrontations and disputes with the neighbouring countries have badly affected the international image and internal situation of the country and the government’s claims of regional economic cooperation have become mere a dream,” the participants of the meeting declared.

They opined that harassing Afghan refugees in different parts of the country and their forced repatriation was a blatant violation of international laws. They said that the issue should be resolved through talks with the Afghan government and a respectful manner should be adopted for the repatriation of the Afghans.

The meeting declared terrorism as the root cause of all the problems being faced by the country and the region. In a resolution, the ANP leadership warned against the wave of anti-Pakhtun terrorism. It said that the Pakhtun nation was specifically targeted by terrorists on both sides of Pakistan and Afghanistan border.

The resolution specifically referred to the attack on the Army Public School Peshawar in December 2014 and some heinous acts of terror like the Bacha Khan University tragedy, massacre of lawyers in Quetta, and suicide attacks on a university in Kabul and lawyers in Mardan as conspiracy to wipe out the Pakhtun intelligentsia, ruin the “Pakhtun/Afghan land” and enslave them forever.

It stated that other political parties were facing no hurdle in carrying out their political activities while the ANP leaders and workers were first targeted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and now the series of attacks have been extended to Balochistan. In Karachi too, the ANP was facing unannounced ban on its peaceful political activities.

The meeting condemned the government’s failure to implement the National Action Plan. The ANP leaders urged the government to eradicate the terrorist hideouts in Punjab. They said that the discrimination between good and bad Taliban was the basic cause of rising terrorism and this difference should be done away with forthwith. The ANP asked the government to strengthen the campaign against terrorism by implementing all points of the National Action Plan and for the purpose the parliament and all the political leaders should be taken into confidence.

The meeting termed the delay in implementation of proposed legal and administrative reforms in Fata as unjust and urged the government to take effective steps for Fata’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The participants of the meeting said that the bills tabled in parliament for constitutional amendments by the tribal legislators should be approved before the next general election. They urged the government to give proper representation to the tribal people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and allocate substantial share for Fata in development budget.

The ANP leaders expressed concern over the blocking of identity cards of Pakhtuns in different parts of the country, which they termed as violation of their basic rights. They asked the Interior Ministry to take immediate measures for solving the matter.

The ANP’s general council expressed concern over the non-implementation of Prime Minister’s announcement about completion of the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The meeting decided that the party would soon give call for protest against the deprivation of smaller provinces in the CPEC. It said the ANP would use every legal and political means to get the right of the Pakhtuns in the multi-billion dollar project.