PESHAWAR: It was out in the open on Tuesday what was long being speculated about; elder Hoti’s decision to contract another marriage has not only caused a split in Mardan House but could also trigger a political tug-of-war within the Awami National Party.

It was Ameer Haider Khan Hoti’s turn to defend his maternal uncle, Asfandyar Wali Khan, against a volley of charges levelled by his father, Azam Khan Hoti, against his brother-in-law, for selling out “the blood of 800 party workers to illuminate his hotels and plazas in Dubai and Malaysia”.

“It is a personal issue. There is nothing political about it,” Ameer Hoti said at a news conference here on Tuesday. “Like all other people, politicians also have families and family issues,” the 38-year-old former chief minister said.

And he made an oblique reference to the ‘issue’, encouraging reporters to Google it and find out for themselves.

The fourth marriage of Azam Hoti with a banker in Peshawar has sparked a bitter row in the family. His latest wife, Humera Azam Hoti, wrote on her twitter account: “I am proud to be the wife of a person, who besides being a great man is leading a very humble life as well”.

Tension over the 67 year-old politician’s marriage to Humera had been brewing in the sprawling Mardan House and stories had been doing the rounds for quite some time.

Asfandyar Wali, whose sister is Hoti’s first wife, was not happy about it and neither were his nephews, Ameer and Ghazan Hoti. As tension mounted within the family, Azam Hoti, according to his spokesman, Farhad Ali Khawar, decided to leave Mardan House and settle with his latest wife in Peshawar.

In the words of Ameer Hoti, his father would have to decide where and with whom he would want to stay and live.

This, say sources close to the family, prompted the elder Hoti to settle scores with Asfandyar.

“Not true,” Khawar said, speaking on behalf of Azam Hoti who, he claimed, was down with fever and was not feeling well. “It has nothing to do with (Azam) Khan’s fourth marriage. Khan had two earlier marriages and no-one had ever raised any objection. It’s true that Khan is no longer living in Mardan House but what was the point in living there when the entire family was miffed.”

“This is political,” Khawar said. “By raising the issue of fourth marriage, the party is trying to divert the attention of people from the real political issue. The party should have responded to charges instead of bringing in the issue of fourth marriage,” he argued.

But this is not what Azam Hoti’s son believes. “My father has politicised the family dispute to take revenge on other members of the family for opposing him in a family matter,” the junior Hoti said.

Answering a question he said the family had placed two options before his father — family or his new wife. All the family members were against the new wife, he said. When the entire family left his father following the marriage dispute, he started levelling allegations against Asfandyar Wali, central leader of the ANP, he said.

Every family has internal disputes, he said, “so we also have some family dispute,” Ameer Hoti said

ANP’s former provincial president Afrasiab Khattak, former minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, senator Zahid Khan, MPA Sardar Hussain Babak and other senior leaders were present at the press conference. Dozens of party workers also present.

Afrasiab Khattak said that Azam Hoti had levelled baseless allegations. “Azam Hoti admitted at his press conference that he has no evidence to substantiate his allegations,” he said.

He said he had not received any cheque from any Arab country, adding that he was a human rights activist and rights activists were abhorred by Arab rulers.

Ameer Hoti said facing allegations was nothing new for the ANP. It has been done time and again. In past, he said, ANP was dubbed as a party of the agents of India, Russia, America. Similarly, Fatwas were issued against ANP workers branding them infidels (Kafirs). He said that time was a good judge and rubbished all the allegations.

When differences erupted in the family over the marriage issue, he said, Asfandyar Khan insisted the issue should be resolved amicably within the house.

He said that Asfandyar had high respect for and confidence in party workers and that would be proved in the coming party elections.

Answering a question, he said that Asfandyar had no property in Dubai but a small business which he had already declared in the statement of his assets submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan.