July 08, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 11, 1427

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PESHAWAR, July 7: The Awami National Party has advised Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao to resign forthwith because of his failure to restore peace in Waziristan and Bajaur agencies where Pukhtoons are being killed for the last three years.

Speaking at a meeting in a local hotel here on Friday to welcome Arbab Mushtaq Ahmed, a former organiser of NWFP Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and Arbab Najeebullah in the fold of his party, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan said the government had been terming Pukhtoons “terrorists” and was using brute force against them in the tribal agencies.

He said Mr Sherpao himself was part of the anti-Pukhtoon operation launched in Fata.

He said he would never flee the country as propagated by Mr Sherpao; however, he was ready to go anywhere to secure the rights of Pukhtoons.

He said he would not witness the destruction of his nation silently.

Mr Khan said he was fighting a war of survival of the Pukhtoons.

In the past, he said his party had rightly termed the so-called Afghan Jihad a US-Russian war, but Pakistani rulers and their agents termed it “a holy war” to advance their interests.

He said elusive terrorists were the guests of the military ruler Gen Zia who turned the entire of Pakistan and Afghanistan into a battlefield.

Referring to injustices being done to the Pukhtoons, he said the rulers had provided natural gas found in Gurgori in Karak to Multan, but they had yet to supply it to people of Karak, the owners of the newly-found gas deposits.

Mr Khan said if Punjab had a monopoly over wheat being its lone producer, then NWFP’s right of ownership should be accepted on excise duty on tobacco and generation of electricity from the Tarbela power project.

He said electricity had been a provincial subject before the formation of One Unit, but the centre had carried on its control over it even after the One Unit’s break-up.

He said the Charter of Democracy authored by the Pakistan People s Party and Pakistan Muslim League was a good move towards restoration of democracy, but unfortunately it had failed to mention the war-like situation in Balochistan and Waziristan and the quantum of provincial autonomy.

He said: “We have sent a proposal to the PPP and PML leaders in London, but we have yet not received any reply from them.”

He said his party had always sided with democratic forces and it would adhere to its political traditions.

Answering a question, he said neither they had accepted Gen Pervez Musharraf as the constitutional head of the country in the past nor would they accept him as such in the future.

He said the ANP had opposed the military takeover and it would oppose it in the future.

He said neither the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal nor Movement for Restoration of Democracy had taken them into confidence on a movement against the present regime, adding that when both the alliances would contact the ANP they would be in a position to decide about it.

ANP leaders Haji Mohammad Adeel, Latif Afridi, Imran Afridi and others were also present on the occasion.

APP ADDS: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao will address a public meeting here on June 10.

A spokesperson of the PPP while talking to the APP on Friday informed that during the function local leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami would announce joining the PPP.