PESHAWAR, Nov 6: Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan has asked district level office-bearers of the party to start a vigorous campaigning for party membership in the country.

“There is a dire need to pay special attention to registering more women as party members so they can play their role in national politics,” he said while addressing a meeting of district presidents and general secretaries of the party at the Bacha Khan Markaz here on Monday.

He said that most of the people were ready to become members of the ANP, but it was up to the office-bearers of the party to reach them and convey the party’s message to them.

He said that some of the elements within the establishment were at the back of the terrorists.

“After Waziristan, the Bajaur Agency is now passing through hard times and the wave of terrorism will spill over to the Khyber Agency to be followed by Tank, Bannu, Swat, Dir and other Pakhtun-inhabited districts,” he said.

He said that under such circumstances it was all the more important for the Pakhtun to create unity among their rank and file to be able to cope with the situation.

He said that for this purpose a jirga was being convened where Pakhtun intellectuals and leaders of political parties would be invited to seek a way out of the prevailing situation.

Mr Khan expressed concern that the Pakhtun were being targeted in the name of the Al Qaeda and Taliban while most of the Al Qaeda operatives had been arrested from Faisalabad, Karachi and Rawalpindi.

He said that there was no office of militants or terrorists in the NWFP but they were headquartered in Muridke, Punjab, but the irony was that Pakhtun-populated areas were being bombarded.

He said that they feared that the Pakhtun were being sidelined from mainstream national politics by proving them as terrorists.