PESHAWAR: Senior Awami National Party leader and former federal minister Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour on Thursday announced his decision to quit parliamentary politics.

“I’m retiring from parliamentary politics after leaving the ANP in a strong position,” Mr Bilour told a news conference at his residence, Bilour House, here. He said he served Peshawar throughout my life and would continue to do so.

He added that he would remain connected with Peshawar until his last breath.

The former minister said he was elected as a member of the National Assembly five times and contested his last election at the age of 85.

Says will remain ANP worker

“Despite winning the election, certain forces ensured his defeat,” he insisted, without elaborating.

Mr Bilour said he had always worked to strengthen democracy and supremacy of the Constitution and the law and that he neither feared anyone nor did he yield to any pressure, which made him unacceptable to the security establishment.

“My age no longer allows me to contest elections but I will remain a worker of the ANP. Wherever I am, I will remain a political worker and a loyal follower of Bacha Khan and Wali Khan,” he said.

Mr Bilour paid tribute to Pakistan’s “Shaheens” for defeating India and enhancing the country’s image globally, saying the Pakistani passport had gained respect internationally. However, he said that while Pakistan appeared strong externally, it had become weak internally due to terrorism, lawlessness, unemployment, inflation and weak economic policies.

He highlighted the “sacrifices” rendered by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ANP workers in the fight against terrorism and praised provincial ANP president Mian Iftikhar Hussain, calling him a “living martyr”. Mr Bilour said Pakistan was a federation of four provinces but conspiracies were being hatched against it.

He added that efforts were being made to roll back the 18th Constitutional Amendment though three of the four provinces supported it.

“Only Punjab is not Pakistan. All four provinces together make Pakistan,” he said.

The former minister said that it was time to hand over the country to politicians.

He said that repeated martial laws and prolonged military rule only increased the country’s problems, with little hope for improvement if the same pattern continued.

Mr Bilour said only by strengthening democracy and framing policies through consensus among all political parties could the country overcome terrorism, economic hardship, unemployment and inflation. He added that due to terrorism, Pashtuns were being killed across the country.

Referring to past policies, he said military dictators had joined wars to please the United States, describing those conflicts as “jihad”, which, he claimed, had caused immense damage to Pakistan and the issue still showed no signs of ending.

The former minister alleged that not only was Pashtun blood being shed, but their natural resources, including oil, gas, gold, copper and mines and minerals, were being seized.

He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was facing severe injustice and claimed that even wheat supplies from Punjab had now been halted.

“In the current situation, we cannot hold elections nor is there any benefit in staying here,” he said, adding that those who held elections did not like his party’s pro-people role.

He also referred to some former politicians and said politicians had always made sacrifices for the country, but obstacles were constantly placed in their way.

Former provincial minister Syed Aqil Shah and several other ANP leaders and workers were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2026