April 30, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1428

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PESHAWAR, April 29: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has said his party will join any opposition alliance that ensures formulation of an independent foreign policy and allows political and financial autonomy to the provinces after coming into power.

Talking to journalists after the party election at the Bacha Khan Markaz here on Sunday, he urged the government to review what he called its flawed Afghan policy, and its internal and external policies to avoid further lawlessness in the country.

Earlier, Mr Asfandyar was re-elected unopposed as the party president. Ghulam Ahmad Bilour was elected senior vice-president; Ihsan Wayne, general secretary; Mohammad Adeel, additional general secretary; Abdul Malik Paneezai, deputy general secretary; and Salamat Aurakzai, finance secretary.

Mr Asfandyar said the ANP would not become part of the grand opposition alliance till the MMA quit the Balochistan government. However, he said his party was ready to join any movement launched for resolving the Pakhtuns’ problems.

He condemned the suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. He said the attack was aimed at derailing the political process, but the same would continue.

“The country is passing through a critical phase as the person (interior minister) responsible for the protection of the whole nation is himself in the line of fire,” he remarked. He said the same was the case with the Chief Justice of Pakistan who was supposed to provide justice to the people, but was fighting himself to get justice.

The ANP chief said he had told US senators at a recent meeting that their country promoted extremism and had shed the blood of 2.3 million Pakhtuns in their war against the USSR. He said he had asked them how many Pakhtuns’ lives would be sacrificed to end the wave of extremism.

He said they had been telling the world community that the war between the Russia and the US in Afghanistan was not a war of Islam, but they were never heard.

Mr Asfandyar also criticised President Gen Pervez Musharraf for “branding the Pakhtuns as Taliban” and said the Pakhtun nation should remove that wrong impression about them.

He accused the government of adopting double standards, saying the government resorted to bombardment in Balochistan whenever there was a problem, but it adopted the path of negotiations in the case of Lal Masjid in Islamabad. He said a dialogue should be held with the Pakhtuns too.

“The country is faced with the problems of terrorism and extremism, but provincial and central government are leveling allegations against each other,” he said. The ANP leader called for formulating an independent foreign policy that ensured ties with other nations on equitable basis.