ANP censures ‘conspiracy’ against Pashtuns

The Awami National Party (ANP) organised a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Monday to express their reservations over the results of the July 25 general elections.

Rejecting the results of the polls, the protesters accused the Election Commission of Pakistan and the caretaker government of keeping party leaders belonging to the Pashtun community out of the parliament.

The protest was led by ANP Sindh President Shahi Syed, who himself faced defeat with a great margin in the race for two of the National Assembly constituencies in Karachi. ANP central chief Asfandyar Wali Khan had directed the party leadership across the country to organise protests against alleged rigging, saying that the party would later convene a meeting to finalise the future course of action.

“It is a conspiracy to keep Pashtun leaders out of the parliament,” claimed Syed. He said the ANP follows Bacha Khan’s philosophy of non-violence and, therefore, the party is recording its protest against “poll rigging” in a peaceful manner.

He claimed that on Election Day polling agents were forced out of different polling stations at the time of counting ballot papers. ANP Sindh General Secretary Younus Khan Buneri and other leaders also addressed the protesters.

In NA-250 Syed was defeated by a great margin by Ataullah Advocate, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) little-known Pashtun candidate. The PTI candidate won the seat by securing 36,049 votes, while the ANP’s Syed ranked sixth with 11,385 votes.

Even though the ANP had formed alliances, it could not perform well in the elections. The party had withdrawn its NA-249 candidate in exchange for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz withdrawing its NA-250 candidate in favour of Syed.