PESHAWAR, Jan 20: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has said that no one can build the controversial Kalabagh dam even in 2016, until the followers of Bacha Khan are alive and adhering to his political philosophy. Mr Asfandyar was speaking at the 18th death anniversary of his grandfather and a central leader of the All India Congress, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan alias Bacha Khan, at the Nishtar Hall on Friday.

The ANP president said they would not allow any group of usurpers to enslave Pukhtuns and deprive them of their natural resources and social, economic and political rights.

He congratulated his party workers for organising a big meeting on the death anniversary to pay Bacha Khan a tribute.

He said the ANP’s anti-Kalabagh dam rally staged on Dec 29, 2005, in Jehangira had forced the rulers to reverse their decision of launching the controversial project.

He thanked those political organizations, which had extended political and moral support to his party during its anti-Kalabagh dam drive across the province.

He said he had made it clear the government, in his speeches in the Senate, ‘if Islamabad is opposed to the resolutions unanimously adopted by the Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan assemblies against the dam, they will not accept the Pakistan Resolution passed by All India Muslim League in Lahore.’

He said Bacha Khan warned the nation in 1985 that the Kalabagh dam would destroy it if its construction was allowed. He said the rulers should construct it, but one bomb would be enough to blow it up.

Commenting on the rising trouble in Bajaur agency, he said he had informed the people of the ongoing unrest six months ago and said that after Waziristan, the militants would make Bajaur their military base.

He said Waziristan had been surrendered to the militants to let them Talibanize it and the militants had enforced their laws in the agency.

He said he had asked the government time and again to abandon its flawed Afghan policy which had been a ‘root-cause’ of violence in Pakistan, otherwise it would bring destruction upon the country.

The ANP leader questioned the involvement of agencies in political affairs.

Mr Khan alleged that secret agencies had been using tribesmen for many years. The militants had their hideouts in Punjab, but the security forces were resorting to operation in Fata, he said.

Veteran Pukhtun leader and noted poet Ajmal Khattak urged the youth to follow the teachings of Bacha Khan, who had been a great practitioner of the non-violence philosophy throughout his life.

He said Bacha Khan was a blend of political steadfastness and courage, who had continued the struggle against the British Raj till India won freedom.

ANP provincial president Bashir Ahmed Bilour lashed out at the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for what he termed its utopian policies. He alleged that the MMA had betrayed the masses in the name of Shariat.

Latif Afridi, Afrasiab Khattak, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Hashim Baber and others also spoke on the occasion.

Former ANP provincial chief Begum Nasim Wali Khan and her son Sangeen Wali Khan were present.

Later, ANP workers bearing torches took out a procession led by Asfandyar Wali Khan.

The ANP would hold the next death anniversary meeting in Jalalabad.