PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has welcomed the formal round of talks between Israel and Pakistan and expressed hope that the initiative will promote peace in the Middle East.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club on Saturday to congratulate Arbab Tariq Khan, a former mayor of the Municipal Corporation Peshawar, who along with his friends joined the ANP, Mr Khan said his party had always rejected military solutions to political issues.

He said the use of force had complicated problems in the past, which could have been settled through peaceful talks.

He said that even Arab leaders who were a direct party to the Palestinian issue had visited Israel. He said the Istanbul initiative would pave a way for a political process and give an end to the era of brute force and violence in the Middle East.

He, however, urged the federal government to take Parliament into confidence before making surprising moves.

He said war had never been a solution to any problem, and they being the followers of Bacha Khan were opposed to bloodshed in the name of political rights. He said only aggressors would opt for violence, while political and sane elements would support peace initiatives.

About the success of ANP during the local body polls in the province, he said his party had bagged the popular vote as it was the real representative of Pukhtun people. “I congratulate my party workers and leaders for the success and hope that they will be in a position to deliver,” he added.

Replying to a question, he said it had been his party’s demand that the Political Parties Order, 2002, should be extended to the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas, so that tribesmen could become a part of the mainstream political parties.

He denied that the existing administrative system in Fata revolving around political agents could offer any solution to the problems of tribesmen.

He said Maliks (tribal elders) backed by political agents were not the real representatives of tribesmen. “The ANP believes in right to adult franchise, one person one vote, to the tribal people and their representation on elected local body forums and provincial assembly,” he added.

He said foreigners languishing in the tribal areas were state guests, who arrived here after 1980, during the US-sponsored war in Afghanistan, and sneaked into Pakistan after the US bombing onto Afghanistan in 2001.

Mr Khan said the government was killing innocent people on the pretext of providing refuge to alleged foreign terrorists.

In reply to a question why his party entered an accord with the MMA for setting up local governments in certain areas, he said it had nothing to do with party politics or ideology as it was a simple alliance to solve people’s problems.

Responding to another question he said the All Parties Conference called by the MMA had no agenda so the ANP had declined to participate.

About the NWFP chief minister’s involvement in the phase-three of local body polls, he said he was told that the chief minister was finding out close links of elected nazims and councillors with government employees so that they could be pressurized.

He declined to comment on the nazim’s elections in Peshawar.

He hoped that new comers in party fold would work for the good of the masses as he was a follower of Bacha Khan and did not believe in politics of bribe and permits.

PML BACKS CONTACT: PML provincial general secretary Mushtaq Ghani, while appreciating the meeting between Pakistan’s foreign minister and his Israeli counterpart in Istanbul, said that such steps would benefit Islamabad in the long run, says APP.