MINGORA: Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfandyar Wali Khan said on Sunday that if his party came to power it would work for the merger of Fata (Federally Admi­nistered Tribal Areas) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a public meeting of his party at Grassy Ground in Swat, he claimed that the people of tribal areas wanted Fata’a merger with KP.

ANP’s provincial president Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Swat president Sher Shah Khan, Aqil Shah, Ayoub Asharey, Rehmat Ali Khan, Wajid Ali Khan and other party leaders were in attendance.

The ANP president called for completing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s western route on priority and said KP and Fata should be given their due shares in CPEC-related projects.

PTI-led KP government accused of corruption

Mr Khan raised questions over KP government’s decision of giving Rs580 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak. “This is the seminary which has produced a number of militants who are involved in the bloodshed of thousands of Pakhtuns, particularly in Swat,” he said.

Calling for an across-the-board accountability in the country, the ANP president also raised questions over the priorities of the National Accountability Bureau. A number of people had offshore companies in the country, but action had been taken only against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he said, adding that “there are some people in KP who own more than 35 offshore companies”.

He claimed that some elected members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had accused their own party’s KP government of being involved in corruption.

Addressing PTI chairman Imran Khan, he said the day would come soon when the KP people would hold him accountable for what he called massive corruption of his party’s provincial government.

He claimed that no one could point an accusing finger at the ANP leadership for corruption. He said he would present himself and his family for accountability if a single proof of corruption was found against them.

The ANP president said his party had repeatedly warned the PTI and other political parties against taking political matters to courts. The ANP had already told them that its result would be catastrophic. Now questions were being raised over impartiality of courts, he added.

Talking about allegations levelled against Pakistan by some important international players, Mr Khan said the ANP had been telling the successive governments for a long time that the country needed to review its foreign policy. Now, he added, when things appeared to be going in the wrong direction everyone was calling for redesigning the country’s policies.

The ANP president criticised the leaderships of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and Jamaat-i-Islami and said they did not talk about Islam when they had been enjoining the perks of the government. And now, he added, when the tenure of the government was going to end they had once again started talking about Islam.

He called upon Pakhtuns to get united for their rights, otherwise they would suffer big losses.

Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Sher Shah Khan also addressed the public meeting.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2018