Asfandyar urges intervention to cool matters down

CHARSADDA: The Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan Friday said collision will be disastrous for the country, therefore, a third party must intervene to defuse the tension.

Asfandyar said that his party had accepted the Supreme Court decision of nullifying the amendment to the Election Act, 2017 with reservations. "We accept with reservations the court decision of removing Nawaz Sharif as president of the PML-N," he said after chairing a meeting of the party's think-tank in Wali Bagh, Charsadda.

The meeting was convened to discuss the Supreme Court decision and situation arising after disqualifying of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as president of the PML-N. The ANP secretary general Mian Iftikhar Hussain, senior politician Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Senator Shahi Syed, former senators Afrasiab Khattak and Zahid Khan, former MNA Bushra Gohar, Senator Baz Muhammad Khan and Abdul Latif Afridi were also present.

Asfandyar Wali said political parties didn't disappear with the disqualification or removal of its head. He said that making a comment or criticising the court decisions was the right of political activists and the aggrieved party. "Nobody can be deprived of this right," he added.

The ANP chief said there was confrontation between the judiciary and the ruling PML-N. He said Parliament was the right forum to discuss and solve political differences, but lamented that some politicians were taking political matters to the courts which was not the right forum to deal with political issues. The ANP chief urged the state institutions to remain in their constitutional limits and refrain from encroaching on the jurisdiction of other institutions. "Interfering in the affairs of other institutions would create crisis-like situation. Confrontation between state institutions is not in favour of the country," he argued. He said a third party was required to intervene and defuse tension between the judiciary and PML-N. Otherwise, he feared, the confrontation would result in uncertainty and cause further deterioration in the already tense atmosphere in the country.

Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Asfandyar said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should also probe theanomalies in the Billion Tree Tsunami and other projects. "The top anti-corruption body has turned a blind eye to the corrupt practices in KP. It becomes blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to financial anomalies in the province," he lamented.

He added that the NAB was targeting Nawaz Sharif only. He said the difference of opinion was the beauty of politics, but what had been done in the name of politics nowadays would turn people against politics in Pakistan.

He said the ANP supported the merger of Fata with KP, saying the confrontation and high political tension pushed this and other burning issues into the cold storage. To a question, he said that CPEC was a project of national interest and would be completed come what may.

Asfandyar Wali said the Chinese ambassador in a recently held meeting assured him about development work on the western route of the multi-billion project. Pointing out that Pakistan was facing internal and external challenges, he called for a review of the internal and foreign policies.