SWABI, May 20: Former provincial education minister Sardar Hussain Babak on Monday said the Awami National Party leadership was ready to help the next Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government restore peace in the province and adjoining tribal region.

Mr Babak, who is one of the four ANP MPAs-elect, told reporters here that restoration of peace in the province was a major objective of the last, ANP-led government, which had used all possible options during the last five years.

“We are peace-loving people and have worked for peace with complete concentration and devotion as it brings progress and prosperity. We are still sticking to the same policy,” he said.

The ANP MPA-elect said conspiracies had been hatched against Pakhtuns and as a result, their regions had been in a complete turmoil.

“We have worked for peace in the violence-hit regions of the Pakhtun community. We have not given up our struggle. We neither stopped nor wanted to hold our fight back because it is in our blood and mind,” he said.

Mr Babak said restoration of peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, tribal region and Balochistan should be top priority of the government and the best available option for it might be dialogue to come out successful from the quagmire of militancy.

He said ANP even convened an all parties conference in Islamabad for developing consensus on how to restore peace in the country, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal region.

The ANP MPA-elect said militancy had adversely affected the province’s economy and pushed the Pakhtuns into the quagmire of poverty by destroying their infrastructure.

“Whenever the question of peace and democracy arose, the followers of Bacha Khan supported that. We are with all those who work for peace in the militancy-hit regions. The entire country has been suffering from militancy but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining tribal areas have suffered the most,” he said.

CONVOCATION HELD: The 17th convocation of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology will be held in the first week of June, said Pro-Rector (academic) Professor Fazal Ahmad Khalid on Monday.

He stated this while chairing a meeting of the convocation committee here.

Professor Fazal said that former president Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan founded the institute, which had been playing a leading role in the realm of higher education.

He said 2,905 people had so far secured BS degrees, 231 MS degrees, and 42 doctoral degrees from the institute in different disciplines of engineering.

The pro-chancellor said the convocation would be attended by leading officials of government departments, educationists and parents of the students.