NOWSHERA: ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Friday said it was the first and last chance of the PTI to rule Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after failing to deliver.

“(PTI chief) Imran Khan isn’t taking interest in resolving the serious problems of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as his politics is focused on Punjab,” he told a public meeting in PK-12 Khattak Nama Jaroba area here.

On the occasion, several PTI activists, especially Syed Amir, Sohail Khan and Usman Kaka, announced the joining of the ANP. Mian Iftikhar Hussain welcomed them to the party by giving them its caps.

The ANP leader said the countdown for the exposure of the PTI’s hollow claims of change had begun and that the people of KP would vote Imran Khan’s party out in the next elections.

He said KP faced serious financial and administrative crises but the provincial government had begun to spend millions of rupees on a media campaign to highlight its so-called achievements.

Mr Hussain said the people were joining the ANP in droves, especially from the PTI and thus, showing their dissatisfaction with the provincial government’s policies.

“Now, the people of KP have realised that only ANP can serve them,” he said.

The ANP leader said KP faces a critical situation on both financial and administrative fronts. “The government institutions in KP, especially education and health departments, are paralysed. As for governance, the ruling PTI’s performance will be remembered in history as the worst,” he said.

Mr Hussain criticised the government’s response to the outbreak of dengue in the province and said instead of taking corrective measures, it was trying to hide the ground reality from the people.

He said the people were dying of dengue but the government was indifferent.

The ANP leader said his party had carried out unprecedented development work in the province during the last government and would sweep the next general elections to serve the people yet again.

He said his party would actively participate in the Oct 9 long march on Islamabad for the rights of Fata.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2017