NOWSHERA: Awami National Party central president Asfandyar Wali Khan has said that people involved in lynching of a university student in Mardan should be hanged in public.

Addressing a workers’ convention in Pabbi Town here on Monday, he lauded Chief Justice of Pakistan for taking suo moto notice of lynching of Mashal Khan.

“Killing innocent children by using the name of religion is against the teachings of Islam,” he said, adding that whoever was involved in it should not be spared.

Mr Khan said that if any member of ANP tried to protect any of the suspects, he would be expelled from the party.

Asfandyar says workers to be expelled from party if they try to protect suspects

The convention was also addressed by ANP central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain and district president Malik Juma Khan. ANP provincial senior vice president Syed Aqil Shah, general secretary Sardar Hussain Babak and other leaders of the party were also present on the occasion.

The ANP chief said that tolerance among people including youth was vanishing. He said that it was a dangerous trend to kill people on the basis of allegations. He said that unity was needed to avoid such incidents in future.

Mr Khan said that situation in the province was precarious but chief minister along with ministers and advisers was visiting China to sign agreements to sell donkeys. He said that efforts of ANP to unblock national identity cards of people bore fruits.

The ANP chief said that they asked the federal government to merge Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and assign its supervision to the provincial government, however, centre delegated such powers to the governor. “It shows that federal government is eyeing seats of provincial assembly from Fata in the next general elections,” he added.

Mr Khan alleged that chief minister compromised over the rights of the province in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He called upon PTI chairman Imran Khan to remove the speaker of provincial assembly immediately on the basis of allegations levelled against him.

He said that Imran Khan ignored corruption of his own ministers but talked against other parties.

The ANP chief also criticised JI emir Sirajul Haq, saying he was levelling allegations against other parties but agreed to compromise when his own minister was accused of corruption.

Mr Khan also lauded recent talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan and termed it a positive step. He said that peace and development in Pakistan was linked with a peaceful and developed Afghanistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif were two sides of the same coin.

He said that Imran Khan was not interested in voters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as he was running after votes in Punjab.

Referring to the statement of Imran Khan about chief of army staff and democracy, Mr Hussain said that even the previous army chief one was also in favour of democracy but Imran continued to push him by demanding that umpire should raise his finger.

In fact, he said, Imran himself was a threat to democracy.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2017