CHARSADDA/PESHAWAR: Awami National Party central president Asfandyar Wali Khan has urged the Chinese government to play its due role in bringing Pakistan and Afghanistan to the negotiating table for durable peace in the region saying it will help protect the billions of dollars of investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project in Pakistan.

He was addressing a public meeting after inaugurating 64km long and Rs180 million Sui gas pipeline project in Dosara area here on Wednesday. The ANP chief regretted that the Pak-Afghan border was repeatedly closed after incidents of terrorism in Pakistan but neither Indo-Pak trade was suspended nor was the Line of Control closed despite the routine firing from across the eastern border.

He said unfortunately, Pakhtuns were being killed in Balochistan, Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan.

Mr. Asfandyar said solution to all problems facing the country lied in the philosophy of peace preached by Khudai Khidmatgar leader Bacha Khan.

Asfandyar says PTI govt fails to deliver, ANP to win next polls

He said the ANP government had carried out massive development work in the province. The ANP chief said the current PTI government had failed to deliver on the election slogan of ‘change’.

He said the people of KP won’t be deceived by the PTI in the next elections in the name of ‘change’ and would vote the ANP to power in 2018.

Mr Asfandyar criticised the provincial government for taking loan from the pension fund to meet its needs and said there were corruption charges against the Jamaat-i-Islami ministers. He demanded that the government release the blocked CNICs of Pakhtuns.

The ANP chief said he had written to the prime minister complaining about the ethnic profiling and harassment of Pakhtuns in Punjab and sought the corrective measures.

Also in the day, the ANP urged the federal government to address ‘reservations and confusion’ about the Fata-KP merger. The call was given by ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain during a meeting with the party’s Fata committee members over Fata reforms here.

The meeting was attended by ANP senior leader Abdul Latif Afridi, provincial general secretary Sardar Hussain Babk, provincial vice president Imran Afridi and other members.

In a news release issued by the Bacha Khan Markaz, Mr Hussain said the ANP Fata committee would have Naheed Afridi and Sakina Bibi as representative of women.

The committee members said the approval of Fata reforms by the federal cabinet was an important decision in line with the demand of the Fata residents but still there was confusion about the nature of those reforms.

They said the federal government had announced the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore, the provincial government should be taken on board and that necessary steps should be taken without delay.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2017