PESHAWAR, Dec 21: Membership drive of the Awami National Party (ANP) will now continue until Jan 31, instead of Dec 31, as announced earlier.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the party’s central commission at the Bacha Khan Markaz here on Thursday. Presided over by commission’s chairman Mohammad Adeel, the meeting was attended by members Arif Azhar from Punjab, Mehrab Kakar from Balochistan and Abdul Latif Afridi advocate from the NWFP. Central party leaders Afrasiab Khattak and Zahid Khan were also in attendance.

The decision to extend the deadline was aimed at attracting more and more people into the party fold, said a press release issued here. It said the participants of the meeting also decided to hold elections to lower tiers of the party.

Elections in all four provinces would be completed by April 15, to be followed by election to central party offices towards the end of the same month, it added.