MARDAN: Two Pakhtun nationalist parties -- Awami National Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party -- have vowed to protect democratic system in the country and resist any unconstitutional move.

The two parties held separate meetings here on Sunday to chalk out a strategy if democracy was derailed in the country.

The meeting of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) was chaired by MNA Qahar Wadan.

The provincial leaders of the party including Hameed Khan, Ali Haider Khan, Advocate Akbar Hoti, Humayun Khan, Gohar Ali and Mahboob Bacha attended the meeting.

The participants of the meeting said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek wanted to sabotage democratic process in the country and pave the way for dictatorship.

They said that a small group of people led by PTI and PAT had blocked Islamabad, the federal capital of the country, for the last several weeks with their so-called slogans of revolution and freedom.

Speaking on the occasion, MNA Qahar Wadan said that it was history of their party that it had strongly resisted dictatorship in the country.

“We will strongly resist any unconstitutional move by any force,” he said.

Similarly, provincial president of Awami National Party MNA Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has also criticised PTI and PAT for staging sit-ins in Islamabad to ‘derail democracy’ in the country.

Addressing a meeting of the party here on Sunday, he lauded PTI president Javed Hashmi for his courageous statement to disclose what he called the designs of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri.

Mr Hoti lashed at Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri for sitting inside their bulletproof vehicles and keeping their party workers and followers on front foot by issuing provocative statements.

He said that ANP would not remain silent in the present situation and would protect democratic system in the country.

He said that the sit-ins of PTI and PAT had not only earned bad name for Pakistan internationally but also caused billions of rupees loss to the economy of the country.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014