PESHAWAR: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has expressed concern over what he calls unjustifiable artificial political polarisation in the country.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, he raised the question as to whether the country could afford new political fault lines in its fractured polity at a time when it was faced with multiple formidable challenges.

“We all know that terrorism in the country is down, but not out. The recent tragic murder of Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada has clearly demonstrated that terrorists are still capable of hitting high profile targets,” the statement quoted him as saying.

Mr Khan said that Zarb-i-Azb operation had entered its toughest stage of clearing the terrorist-infested areas of Shawal and Datakhel in North Waziristan while Balochistan was still boiling. He said that peace process in Afghanistan was at the verge of collapse which had the potential of serious fallout for Pakistan.

Says Imran wants to gain political power by hatching conspiracies against system

The ANP chief said that Pakistan’s relationship with India had gone from bad to worse with the cancellation of the meeting between the NSAs of the two countries. He said that growing shelling on LOC and the Pakistani response to it reflected the deteriorating situation.

“How can the country overcome such formidable challenges if it remains a divided house,” Mr Khan said. Another pertinent question, he said, was about the present state pressure on those political parties that had been continuously targeted by terrorists.

“Is it a coincidence that the progressive political parties with clear anti-terrorist narrative have to bear the brunt of the pressure,” Mr Khan questioned. He said that it was quite intriguing to see Imran Khan preparing for another sit-in.

The ANP chief said that in 2014 Imran had staged a sit-in on the pretext that the judiciary was not providing him with relief in the cases of alleged election rigging. But mysteriously he threatened a sit-in at a time when the election tribunals had de-seated some high profile MNAs of the ruling party, he added.

By now it was pretty clear that he (Imran) wanted to gain political power by hatching conspiracies against the constitutional system, he said.

Mr Khan expressed concern over deplorable condition of displaced people and said that last year the government had promised to arrange dignified return of the North Waziristan IDPs on urgent basis. But the promise had not been fulfilled while another winter was not far away, he said.

“It is very disappointing to see that the government has totally forgotten around one hundred thousand IDPs who had crossed the Durand Line and gone to Afghanistan,” he stated.

Mr Khan said that ANP would not tolerate negligence and indifference of the government towards the IDPs. He demanded of Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to take Parliament and all the political parties into confidence about the fresh political polarisation and fragmentation that has the potential of endangering the very existence of the federation.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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