CHARSADDA: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan on Thursday said had the PML-N-led government formed judicial commission to probe the allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections and the Model Town killings on time, the political scene would have not come to the current sorry state.

After chairing a meeting of the party’s provincial and central council meeting here, Asfandyar told reporters that the ANP supported democracy, parliament and the Constitution and would take every measure to safeguard the state’s institutions.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was a political party and the ANP recognised its mandate but Dr Tahirul Qadri of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek was a Canadian refugee, who would return his home there.

Complains about delay in probe into Model Town killings, poll rigging charges

The ANP president said Imran Khan should bear in mind that the ANP, too, had reservations about the 1973 Constitution but it accepted it as it believed in democratic struggle.

He said he was surprised to see PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi show respect for parliament while speaking inside the house though outside parliament house, he declared assemblies bogus and illegitimate.

Asfandyar said it was very strange that participants of sit-ins outside parliament house bodysearched those entering Pak Secretariat in Islamabad, including staff members.

He praised the PTI lawmakers, who didn’t resign from the National Assembly, and said the ANP wanted elected members to serve their respective voters.

The ANP chief criticised the federal and provincial government for ignoring the misery of displaced families from North Waziristan and demanded appropriate help for them in the testing times.

He said his party accepted the people’s mandate for the PTI in the province and wanted its government to resolve the people’s problems.

“The people had voted for the PTI, so it should live up to the people’s expectations,” he said.

Asfandyar said the ANP didn’t the PTI to quit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government though it had serious reservations about the last year general elections.

He said candidates of his party couldn’t canvass during the last elections due to terrorist attacks though others ran election campaigns freely, but even then, the ANP accepted the elections only to strengthen democracy in the country.

Meanwhile, ANP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Thursday said his party would demand re-election if a judicial commission found rigging in the last elections.

During a public meeting in his native town, Mardan, Hoti said his party had suffered defeat due to terrorist attacks.

He said when other parties canvassed with let or hindrance during the last elections, the ANP was busy burying its leaders and activists targeted by terrorists.

The ANP leader said his party would continue making efforts to strengthen democracy through peaceful means.

“We will continue protecting democratic system and rights of Pakhtuns,” he said.

Hoti said the ANP would stick to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s philosophy of nonviolence and would strive for the rights of Pakhtuns by peaceful means.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2014