KARACHI, July 21: Awami National Party is opposed to the Legal Framework Order, stood for rule of law and supremacy of parliament and wanted extension of the Political Parties Act to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

This was the thrust of the ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan’s address during the Meet the Press programme of the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

In his wide-ranging discourse, Mr Khan also spoke on the issue of provincial autonomy and expressed concern over growing friction between Pakistan and Afghanistan over a chunk of border area and also emphasized the need for resolving contentious issues through dialogue with Kabul and New Delhi.

He made it clear that the ANP respected mandate given to the MMA and declared that his party would not be a party to destablization of the government in the NWFP.

He observed that when liberal forces were required to be marginalized, religious parties were backed but now when they had failed to deliver, their degrees were being questioned.

Responding to a question that why the ANP was getting neither along with the combined opposition parties (COP) nor with the regime, Mr Khan said that his party was not prepared to become ‘a camp follower’.

Pointing out that ANP was neither with the COP nor with the government, Mr Khan explained the reasons which led his party to decide to part ways with the COP. He said that the ANP had attended the COP meeting convened by the COP to take a position on the issue of Iraq. A draft resolution, on a computer print-out, was circulated by Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, Mr Khan said and added that something had been struck down and an addition made in it with a pen.

Asfandyar Wali Khan revealed that when he asked about the those who had carried out the alteration, Prof Ghafoor identified them as S. M. Zafar and Wasim Sajjad.

Mr Khan said that he was surprised to know that a draft resolution of the opposition had to be first approved by the ruling party. He declared that the ANP was not prepared to be part and parcel of a camp or to be a camp follower.

About his party’s contacts with the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), he said that the ARD leadership had been asked to include its component parties’ provincial leadership in talks with the ANP so that decisions were not made controversial by the provincial rivals. In this context, he cited some past experience.

Declaring that NAP stood for rule of law and supremacy of parliament, and opposed to the LFO, Mr Khan said that if amendments were made in accordance with the 1973 Constitution, his party would accept them.

He, however, made it clear that the issue of LFO could not be tackled in isolation and had to be addressed in a broader scenario. He said that ANP was opposed to the manner in which the LFO was being imposed on the people, although many things in the LFO were akin to his party’s stand.

About ANP’s stand on denial of right to franchise to women in Fata, Mr Khan pointed out that although two elections were held there on the basis of adult franchise, political parties were kept out of it because the Political Parties Act (PPA) had not been extended to that area.

“When political parties are not allowed to operate in Fata, and restrictions are imposed on political personalities from entering even for social events, how can one expect a real democracy to take roots in Fata?”

He claimed: “Fata has been left open to fundamentalists but liberal democratic forces are not allowed.” Demanding that the PPA should be extended to the Fata, he ANP chief said that if the liberal democratic forces were not allowed to operate there, situation in the territory would become much worse.

The NAP chief was of the view that the federation’s survival was at stake owing to denial of provincial autonomy as envisaged in the 1973 Constitution and claimed that the process had been exacerbated by the devolution plan initiated by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He recalled that the unanimous support to the Constitution was accorded by the political parties on the condition that the question of provincial autonomy would be decided after 10 years.

Mr Khan said that at present the sense of deprivation, prevailing among provinces, was growing to which the issue of Kalabagh Dam and Greater Thal Canal project had added a new dimension.

The devolution plan of Gen Musharraf has further complicated the situation, he said and added that devolution should have started from centre to the provinces and then to Zila.

On Kashmir, the ANP chief said: “It is a political issue and should be resolved through dialogue, which is possible only when both the parties sit across the table and show political courage.

“We have to go in for a dialogue with India,” he said and pointed out that wars had plunged the region into a deep crisis.

He also chided certain religious parties for their stand on Simla and Tashkent agreements and said that they had been trying to make them controversial. He recalled that leaders of religious parties, including gentlemen like Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed and the late Mufti Mahmud had ratified the Simla accord.