ANP suspends political activities as coronavirus cases surge

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has suspended political activities and party gatherings across the country in wake of increasing cases of coronavirus in its third wave.

In a press release issued from Bacha Khan Markaz in Peshawar on Tuesday, ANP central Senior Vice President Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said the third wave of Covid-19 could be more hazardous than the second wave.

He added the general public particularly the ANP workers should follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other guidelines set by the World Health Organisation and the Government of Pakistan.

He said all scheduled meetings and political activities of the ANP had been postponed while fresh events and public meetings of the party would not be held in the face of increasing cases of coronavirus.

He requested party workers to wear facemasks, adopt social distancing rules and avoid going to public places, crowded bazaars and the hotspots of Covid-19.

The ANP leader asked the government to take steps for providing basic facilities and services to the general public at their doorstep. “The government must make arrangements for vaccination of the people particularly elderly and the poor,” he said and added that the general public should cooperate health workers in the vaccination and other treatment against the coronavirus.

The ANP leader asked the government to announce financial package for traders and those daily wagers and workers who had been affected by lockdown and closing of markets due to Covid-19 in its third wave.

Meanwhile, ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan said that the party suspended political activities and events in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said new dates and schedule for Ghani Meela (festival in the name of noted Pashto poet Abdul Ghani Khan), ANP provincial cabinet meeting, working committee and council meeting have been postponed and new dates for these events would be announced when the coronavirus pandemic came to an end in the country.

He said the federal as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments must resolve the problems and demands of those government servants including health workers, nurses, teachers and clerks who had been protesting for the last few days in Peshawar and other parts of the country.