PESHAWAR: Awami National Party-Wali on Tuesday expressed concern about the alleged rigging in local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and asked local government minister Inayatullah Khan to step down over the issue.

ANP-Wali chairwoman Begum Nasim Wali Khan told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that her party didn’t demand dissolution of the provincial assembly as it was a democratically elected body but sought the local government minister’s resignation over the local body election mess.

Flanked by party’s provincial president Farid Khan Toofan and other leaders, Begum Nasim said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak also admitted that the local government elections were rigged and therefore, fresh local body elections should be held without delay.

“We will not resign from the provincial government as it is a democratic setup. However, the entire responsibility for election irregularities rests with the local government minister, who should resign immediately,” she said.

The ANP-W chairwoman said what happened in the May 30 polls couldn’t be called rigging and rather it should be given a worse name.

“All relevant institutions like police, Election Commission, intelligence agencies and judiciary are responsible for this electoral mess.

“We don’t consider the newly-elected people as public representatives. Imran Khan and the provincial government should announce re-elections of local governments without delay,” she said.

Begum Nasim said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had attached great expectations to PTI but the party was exposed in the local government elections.

She said her party believed in Bacha Khan’s policy of non-violence and that other parties too should follow that policy to strengthen democracy in the province.

“I came back to politics with the sole objective of enlivening the philosophy of Bacha Khan seeing some selfish elements use it for personal gains,” she said.

The ANP-W chairwoman said she formed the party after ANP suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2013 general elections.

She said senior ANP leaders and Bacha Khan followers had come together to raise voice for the rights of Pakhtuns.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2015

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