MARDAN: Awami National Party central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that tutors of terrorists are from Punjab while their pupils hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He was addressing a public meeting in Chechar area of Katlang here on Tuesday. ANP provincial president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, provincial general secretary Aimal Wali Khan, district president Himayatullah Mayar and a large number of party activists attended the meeting.

Mr Hussain said that they did not want any ministry or power rather their mission was to restore peace on the soil of Pakhtuns. For that purpose, they could form coalition with any political party, he added.

The ANP leader claimed that their party was also a victim of election rigging but they accepted the results of last general polls for the sake of continuation of democracy and strengthening democratic system in the country.

He said that ANP leadership led the combat against militants. He said that they sacrificed hundred of leaders and workers in the fight against terrorists.

“Though the massacre at Army Public School and College in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 is a great tragedy in which about 150 students and school staffers were killed yet it is good that it has brought the civil and military leadership on the same page and forged unity among them,” Mr Hussain said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said that PTI leadership failed to bring change in the province as per its promise that it had made with people of the province before coming into power.

He said that although PTI chief Imran Khan failed to build a ‘new Pakistan’ yet he succeeded to start a ‘new matrimonial life’. He said that it was victory of the residents of Mardan and its adjacent areas that the PTI-led provincial government took back its decisions to establish at toll tax plaza on ring road and shift educational board to Peshawar.

Mr Hoti said that they would strongly resist any move of the provincial government if it reduced funds for any developmental project in Mardan district or interfered in the affairs of any government institute in the limits of the district.

Aimal Wali Khan said in his address that they did not believe in differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. “We are fighting for the survival of Pakhtun nation,” he added.

Mr Khan said that they had to win the war against terrorism at all cost as they had no other option.

On the occasion, several local leaders and workers of PML-N announced to join ANP and expressed confidence in the leadership of the party.

Published in Dawn January 14th , 2015

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