PESHAWAR, Aug 23: The Awami National Party has criticised Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and said that people would ditch him because of his self-serving policies.

Reacting to Mr Sherpao’s statement that the ANP had failed to come up to people’s expectations, ANP’s provincial general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that Mr Sherpao was living in fools’ paradise as scores of his party workers had deserted him and joined ANP.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, he said that Mr Sherpao was wanted by the National Accountability Bureau in connection with cases of corruption, adding that he had been given the slot of a federal minister after striking a deal with the government.

He said that the ANP people were joining it “in droves” and the days of PPP (Sherpao) were numbered. He said that Mr Sherpao’s party was “kept alive by oxygen supplied by intelligence outfits” and once that supply was stopped, he and his party would die of itself.

Criticising the PPP (Sherpao), he said that the party had no manifesto or constitution and was run by “father and son”, adding that the ANP had its roots in the masses, which would be reflected in the next general elections.