PESHAWAR, April 8: The Awami National Party has called upon the western countries to support the peace initiative proposed by the Frontier government for the early return of normalcy in violence-hit areas of the province.

Speaking to a two-member delegation of Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung at Bacha Khan Markaz here on Tuesday, ANP senior vice president Haji Mohammad Adeel said that they believed in the nationalism, secularism and democracy, which were three main pillars of their party political philosophy.

He said the coalition government led by his party had opted for the peaceful solution of the pervasive lawlessness across the province. He said it was a better and lasting way of resolving the problems.

The FES delegation, comprising Daniel Reichart, Henning Effner and Abdul Qadir that met him lauded the efforts of the ANP for the restoration of peace and confidence of the people in the government.

Haji Adeel told them that his party had been struggling against the different forms of dictatorship since its inception in 1956. He lamented that the western democracies had always extended their support to military dictators in Pakistan. He said their pro-dictators stance in 1958, in 1969, in 1977 and in 1999 caused irreparable losses to the genuine democratic forces in Pakistan. He said the western states had supported the coup of Gen Ayub Khan, the first military dictator, only to use him like a stooges against the Soviet Union.Later, he said, the western club led by the United States, supported the unconstitutional government of Gen Ziaul Haq in 1979 to pave the way for a proxy war against the Soviet Union. Gen Zia, he said, destroyed the fabric of society and patronised the conservatives and bigots to prolong his dictatorship.

He said the western capitals had always found faults with the weak civilian governments in Pakistan, but backed the repressive military regimes. The west, he said, had founded a factotum in the form of Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf to advance its hegemonic agenda in Southeast Asia. He said the jingoism promoted by the US and its religious allies in this part of the world had become an uncontrollable challenge for the US administration and its European allies.

Haji Adeel told them that it was the US and its Arab friends who had brought assorted militants from all over the world and abandoned them in the hills of Afghanistan and Fata after the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. He said now Pakistan was paying price of the sins that it had not committed. He said none of the Afghans or Pakhtuns were involved in the 9/11 tragedy, but the US and its allies had made the Afghans and Pakhtuns their target in the name of war on terror.

He said: “We are followers of Bacha Khan, who was a great champion of the philosophy of non-violence. We believe in peaceful efforts. We are opposed to the use of force as it does not suit the human being to opt for violence.”