ANP makes effort to regain lost turf in city’s Pashtun neighbourhoods

In its efforts to regain its lost turf in Karachi’s Pashtun neighbourhoods and to promote Aimal Wali, a scion of the Bacha Khan dynasty, as a leader of national stature, the Awami National Party’s (ANP) Sindh chapter on Sunday organised a successful show of power in the city.

A large number of party workers and supporters gathered from different areas at the Karachi airport to receive Wali, the ANP’s newly elected president for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and brought him in a big procession to District Malir’s Gul Ahmed Chowrangi, where he spoke to a rally against the federal government’s “bad governance” and inflation.

During his speech at the rally, Wali, who is also the son of the party’s supremo Asfandyar Wali, blamed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) government for the financial crises in the country, saying that the ruling party had failed to fulfil its promises to the people that were made before the 2018 general elections.

He claimed that it was the worst government in the history of the country, as it had deprived hundreds of people from work. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had deceived the people in the name of “change”. He added that those wrong policies and the increasing inflation had exposed the anti-people agenda of the PTI government.

Referring to the provincial assembly polls in the newly merged districts of the tribal areas held on Saturday, the ANP KP chief said that the elections had been rigged and his party would devise a strategy against the engineered polls. The ANP won one out of the 16 PA seats in the elections.

Discussing the state of the media in the country, he said the PM becomes angry whenever he is referred to as a “selected ruler” but the restrictions now being imposed on the media outlets were stricter than any imposed during the dictatorships of former military rulers Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf.

Wali, who represents the fourth generation of the Bacha Khan dynasty, said that his family was in politics for several decades and whatever assets he owned had been inherited from his elders.

ANP Sindh President Shahi Syed said that the “selected” government through Musharraf’s cabinet has been imposing anti-people policies on the locals. He asked the interior minister to focus on implementing the National Action Plan to curb terrorism in the country instead of spending his energies on political victimisation of the opposition parties’ leaders.

Syed said that workers of the ANP, which is a key component of the opposition, will also fully participate in the July 25 rally at Bagh-e-Jinnah to protest the anti-people policies of the PTI’s federal government.

ANP Sindh General Secretary Younas Bunairee moderated the gathering. The other speakers included KP MPA Laiq Muhammad Khan, district presidents Kachkol Khan, Niaz Khan, Nasir Khattak, Fahim Jan and Arshad Sohail. In the rally, local leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the PTI also announced joining the ANP.

Earlier, rallies had emerged from different parts of the city and converged on the Jinnah International Airport to give Wali a rousing welcome on his first political visit after becoming the ANP’s KP president.

The National Highway from the airport to Quaidabad and the adjoining roads were jammed for hours as vehicles bearing red flags and bursting with young men travelled towards the airport and then from there towards Gul Ahmed Chowrangi.

It was one of the biggest public meetings of the ANP after the party faced the worst electoral defeat in the general elections held in the city a year ago.