ANP issues show-cause notice to Afrasiab Khattak, Bushra Gohar

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday issued show-cause notices to two senior party leaders after accusing them of violating the party discipline and damaging its interests.

ANP central General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain issued the show-cause notice to former Senator Afrasiab Khattak and Senior Vice-President Bushra Gohar on the directives of the party President Asfandyar Wali Khan.

“Your activities are against the party’s interests, its constitution and discipline that have resulted in [a] huge loss to the party,” the show-cause notice read.It added their activities had negative effects on the workers as it created confusion and led to the misunderstanding that damaged the party’s interests.

The two party leaders were asked to submit their reply within seven days or else they would face action for violating the party discipline and policy.When asked to specifically state the charges for issuing the show-cause notice, Mian Iftikhar Hussain told The News that specific reasons could not be disclosed to the media as this concerned the party’s internal matters.

However, he said ANP leadership had noticed that their activities were against the party discipline. When contacted, Afrasiab Khattak said he had learnt about the notice from the social media, but had yet to receive anything verbal or in writing.

Bushra Gohar told The News that she had requested the party president and general secretary to provide details of the alleged anti-party activities that led to issuance of show-cause notice. She added that the notice was vague.

Afrasiab Khattak and Bushra Gohar are very vocal on the social media and other forums and have been expressing their views on various issues in the country that may have annoyed the party leadership. They are also vocal supporters of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) led by Manzoor Pashteen.

Many ANP supporters reacted to the issuance of the show-cause notice to Afrasiab Khattak and Bushra Gohar and criticised the party leadership for taking this extreme step. Some of them took to the social media to voice their disappointment over the action against them.

Certain ANP workers said subjecting ideological leaders to such a treatment would relegate the party to a platform for the opportunists. Meanwhile, sources said the two had been vocal in expressing their views and had criticised the ANP policies in the general council meeting and other closed-door meetings.These sources said the two had been punished for speaking the truth.