LOWER DIR: Awami National Party central spokesman Zahid Khan has asked the Election Commission of Pakistan and the caretaker government to provide a ‘level-playing’ field to all the political parties for carrying out their election campaigns.

Talking to journalists in Odigram on Monday, he said elements involved in the May 9 riots should be properly investigated and sentenced through courts. He said ANP would oppose banning Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf in elections.

He said the caretaker government had no authority to crackdown on workers of a specific party.

Zahid Khan denied rifts in the party.

He asked the government to honour international laws while repatriating the Afghan refugees.

Meanwhile, ANP district general secretary Malik Mohammad Zeb has demanded of the vice-chancellor of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan to appoint local youth in the varsity’s Timergara campus.

Talking to journalists, he said there were reports that about 350 employees of AWKU Mardan were being adjusted in the Timergara campus.

He said ANP would resist the transfer of varsity’s employees from its main campus to Timergara campus.

ROBBERIES: Residents of Ghulamabad locality near the district jail on Monday complained the police had failed to curb rising incidents of thefts in the area.

Talking to reporters, they said thieves had taken away Rs800,000 cash from a shop near the Timergara jail, and 11 batteries of a mobile phone tower during last two weeks. They said thieves had also lifted a car parked on the Khungi Road.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023