Foil possible bid to manipulate general election, Asfandyar asks workers

CHARSADDA: Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Friday urged party workers to get ready for stopping the ‘farishtas and jinnat’ from manipulating the upcoming general election.

“Get ready to prevent the anti-democratic forces from manipulating the forthcoming general election,” he told the workers convention of the party here.

Asfandyar Wali said that the present internal and foreign policies had failed to safeguard the national interests and asked the federal government to convene an all parties conference (APC) to formulate new policies as per the aspiration of the people of the country.

“It’s time formulate policies keeping in view the interest of the country,” he added.

The ANP chief said that worse horse-trading was carried out in the recently held Senate election.

“The lawmakers in the province indulged in horse-trading in the recently conducted election to the Upper House of the Parliament. Arch rivals came closer and supported each other in the election of the Senate chairman and deputy chairman,” he maintained.

The nationalist politician criticised the PTI chief Imran Khan for his continuously changing of stance on a verity of issues, saying Imran Khan had earlier announced to register criminal cases against his party lawmakers for indulging in horse-trading in the Senate election. “But now he has taken a U-turn on the matter,” he added.

Opposing the provision of funds by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to the Darul Uloom Haqqani in Akora Khattak, he said that it was creating doubts in the minds of the people.

He recalled that the PTI chief had once offered the militants to open an office in Peshawar when militancy was at its peak in the province.

“We were carrying the corpses of our sons, brothers, sisters and mothers and Imran Khan was offering office to militants,” he deplored.

He said Imran Khan introduced the politics of intolerance and abuse in the country.

Asfandyar Wali also came down hard on Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, saying he (Pervez Khattak) was leveling baseless allegations of corruption against the ANP leadership but failed to prove the assertions.

He said that Imran Khan was also silent over the corruption by his party’s ministers and lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The ANP chief said that the much-trumpeted Bab-e-Peshawar flyover in Hayatabad had developed cracks and heavy traffic was barred from plying on it. “The flyover was constructed with a total cost of Rs1.72 billion and developed cracks just after two years of its completion,” he said, and asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to direct an investigation into the corruption in the project.

He said that more corruption stories would be unearthed in the near future as the PTI-led provincial government was heading towards completion of its tenure.

The ANP chief said that the NAB was active in Punjab and investigating cases against the Sharif family but ignored the corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Asfandyar Wali said peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan was interlinked. “The two countries cannot make progress without restoration of peace,” he added. He also called for merger of the tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the earliest.