04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

PESHAWAR, March 3: Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has convened an emergency meeting of the party's central committee on March 16 to discuss his decision of suspending the basic party membership of Farid Toofan, general secretary of the NWFP chapter of the ANP.

According to a press release issued here on Thursday, the meeting would be held at the Dir House in Rawalpindi. Rift within the top ANP leadership deepened after Mr Asfandyar on Wednesday suspended the basic membership of Mr Toofan, said to be a close confidant of the party's provincial president Begum Nasim Wali Khan.

The action against Mr Toofan came at the height of differences between Mr Asfandyar and his mother, Begum Nasim. "The party's central leader Asfandyar Wali Khan has suspended the basic membership of the provincial general secretary Fareed Toofan," said a press release issued from Bacha Khan Markaz, the party headquarters, by secretary information Zahid Khan, one of the main leaders of the group confronting Mr Toofan and Begum Nasim.

During his 35-year association with the party, Mr Toofan served twice as provincial minister after getting elected to the provincial assembly on the ANP ticket in the 1990 and 1997 general elections.

While he claimed that he being the elected general secretary had not been removed from the office even though his basic membership suspended, his opponents said that he could not use the party's name or platform till a final decision was taken about him by the central committee.

Differences in the Wali family, with Mr Asfandyar and Mr Azam Hoti joining hands against Begum Nasim, have surfaced at a time when the party's patron, Wali Khan, is said to be critically ill.

"He cannot talk and hardly recognizes anyone, not even members of his family," said a close associate of the Wali family. The press release, faxed to newspaper offices here on Wednesday, said that Mr Toofan had also been barred from taking part in activities of the party or using ANP's name.

The suspension order sent to Mr Toofan, however, does not contain much of what has been said in Mr Zahid Khan's press release. Showing the suspension order to journalists, at a press conference, Mr Toofan said that "the one-line letter from the party chief, under his signature, does not include what the secretary information has mentioned in the press release".

He said that his basic membership had been suspended without fulfilling requirements of the party's constitution. "It is ironical that ANP has always organized its chapters at various levels by adopting the bottom-up approach, but the decision about me has come from the top, without consulting the party's provincial president," said Mr Toofan.

He expressed confidence in the leadership of Mr Asfandyar and other members of the Wali family, saying that he would always be loyal to the family because of the political philosophy and principles laid down by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the founder of Khudaee Khidmatgaar Tehrik, and the leadership provided to Pukhtoons by Wali Khan and his son Asfandyar.

He alleged that the party chief had been misguided by his deputies belonging to the industrialist and feudal class. They, he added, had hatched a conspiracy to expel him from the party at the behest of secret agencies with a plan to weaken the ANP before the federal government announced the launching of the Kalabagh dam project.

The party chief, he said, had acted hastily against him because "I submitted my rejoinder to the president on the night of March 1, whereas the order of my suspension was delivered to me early in the morning on Wednesday [March 2]."

He said that some people in the party had told him earlier that he would be expelled from the party if he did not quit the post of general secretary to allow the elevation of Azam Hoti's son Haider Khan Hoti, now additional general secretary to the post.

In the show-cause notice served on Mr Toofan on February 26, he was asked to explain his position on charges levelled against him by the party's senior leaders.

The charges are: creating rift within the top ANP leadership, bringing bad name to ANP's top leaders by accusing them of misdeeds, misappropriation of donations received by the party, failing to invite party chief to a function of the party's student wing, resignations tendered by the party's senior leaders and his negative attitude towards the party chief.

It may be mentioned that four senior office bearers of the party's NWFP chapter, senior-vice president Aaqil Shah, secretary information Mian Iftikhar, vice-president Imran and joint secretary Hussain Shah resigned from the party offices during a meeting of the provincial committee on Feb 24, demanding removal of the provincial general secretary.