PESHAWAR, March 9: The Awami National Party (ANP) has expelled three of its MPAs for betraying the party in Senate elections on Feb 24, and selling their votes to independent candidates.

Speaking at a news conference here at Peshawar press Club on Sunday, parliamentary leader in the house and NWFP ANP President Bashir Ahmed Bilour said the party had terminated the basic membership of Syed Kalb-i-Hasan of Kohat, Atiqur Rehman of Hangu and Sarfaraz Khan of Gadoon-Swabi, and expelled them from the parliamentary group as they had not voted for the ANP candidates running for Senate seats.

ANP Information Secretary Haji Mohammad Adeel, Fareed Taufan and Mian Iftikhan Hussain were also present on the occasion.

He said the ANP had always upheld its democratic credentials even during the successive dictatorial regimes and discouraged the political expediency in the party folds. “We are the followers of Bacha Khan, who had launched a long struggle against the British Raj in the sub-continent. We will not go against our tradition in politics,” he added.

Mr Bilour appealed also to other political parties to take action against their renegades who had ditched their candidates on Feb 24. “We hope the other betrayed political parties will follow us in the struggle against lotacracy and take disciplinary action against their defectors,” he added.

He said that despite the betrayal of three MPAs, the ANP had won two Senate seats with its seven votes in hand. Some other parties, who had even 10 MPAs, could not bag two seats, he said.

The opposition parties had jointly put up Syed Kalb-i-Hasan for the speaker’s post on Nov 26, 2002, and he had bagged 39 votes against incumbent speaker Bakht Jahan Khan.

Mr Bilour said that soon after the Senate elections, the party had constituted an inquiry committee which found out three defectors in the party.

The ANP, he said, would file a petition against them with the Election Commission to have them disqualified from the assembly seats.

Replying to a question, he said all the three accused MPAs could file an appeal with the party working committee if they were dissatisfied with the disciplinary action against them. The ANP had taken a similar action in 1991, against its renegade MPAs.

decision lauded: The Pakistan People’s Party has praised the decision of the Awami National Party against the three MPAs who had defected from it. The MPAs termed their action as a healthy step towards the establishment of parliamentary democracy in the country.

The PPP provincial chief Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti in a statement on Sunday said: “The ANP leadership deserves praise for its timely decision against the defectors. It paves the way for other political parties to take action against their own deserters and lotas who have betrayed them.”

Mr  Hoti said real victory belonged to Asfandyar Wali Khan and the others who had failed to get seats in the general elections. The principled stand of the ANP leadership against its defectors had enhanced its image in the eyes of political parties, he added.