NOWSHERA: ANP provincial president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Monday urged PTI chief Imran Khan and PAT leader Tahirul Qadri to stop violating the Constitution and ask their workers not to attack state institutions.

“Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri will be responsible if democracy is derailed. Imran Khan should learn from the country’s history, which clearly shows politicians get nothing out of such endeavours,” he told a public meeting in Manki Sharif area here.

Hoti said politicians had committed mistakes in the past but it seemed they had learned nothing from them.

“It appears the PTI and PAT leaders need bodies to serve political ends,” he said.

The ANP leader said the government should show patience and try to resolve political issues through dialogue.

He criticised the PTI for trying to change the government by taking 10,000-12,000 to Islamabad and said if such a practice succeeded, then no future government would complete constitutional term.

Hoti says PTI, PAT leaders to blame if democracy derailed

Hoti said Imran Khan accused the chief election commissioner and the Election Commission of rigging the last general elections though it was the ANP, which couldn’t canvass due to the Taliban threats.

He said the Taliban militants had planned were planning against ANP and TTP chief Hakeem Ullah was performing its duty like chief election commissioner for ANP.

The ANP leader said Imran Khan should explain his repeated statements on the ‘umpire’ would soon give its verdict against the PML-N government.

“The nation should know who the umpire is,” he said.

Hoti said the Pakistan Army was trying to normalise the situation triggered by the PTI and PAT sit-ins.

He said his government in the province had served the people for five years and that the development projects executed by it were matchless.

On the occasion, ANP provincial information secretary Sardar Hussain Babak said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak lavishly spent the government resources for the PTI sit-in in Islamabad against the PML-N government.

He said the PTI government in the province had miserably failed to fulfil the ruling party’s election promises for turning around the system of governance.

Babak said the PTI had also promised the holding of local government elections within 90 days of forming the government but that didn’t happen even one year after the formation of the provincial government.

He said Imran Khan had posed serious threat to democracy in the country by launching the civil disobedience movement.

The ANP leader said ironically, the provincial ministers and MPAs and MNAs continued to draw salary from the kitty despite the party chief’s announcement.

Bashir Matta, Aqil Shah, Jamila Gilani, Shagufta Malik, Aimal Wali, Masud Abbas, Malik Juma Khan, Jamal Tariq Hameed and Malik Atta khan were noted among those in attendance.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd , 2014