CHARSADDA, Feb 19: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has said that their party was ready for negotiations with other parties to form coalition government in the province and centre if their demands were met including the renaming of NWFP.

Talking to Dawn, he said that the PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had called him to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition. “But I made it clear that we need solutions to our basic issues,” he said.

Mr. Khan said that ANP wanted a name for the NWFP from amongst three names -- Pakhtunkhwa, Pakhtunistan and Afghania, a name given to the NWFP by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali when he coined the word Pakistan.

The ANP leader said that their party also wanted full provincial autonomy. “And when I talk about provincial autonomy, it includes financial autonomy too,” he added.

He said that he would also like to get the ‘War on Terror’ redefined to incorporate his party’s views.

“There has to be an economic package and it has to involve political approach,” he said. He said that he would meet the PPP co-chairman in the next few days after holding his own party meeting.

He made it clear that being the single largest party, ANP would demand the chief minister slot for itself.

This would be a departure from ANP’s past practice to forsake its right to get the office of the provincial chief executive despite having majority in the NWFP Assembly.

“Those are bygone days,” he remarked. “You know who was responsible for it,” he said, without elaborating while referring to the party’s former iron lady, Begum Nasim Wali Khan.

“The ANP would strike alliance with a political party after it is assured on certain important issues, including a name for the province,” he said while talking to journalists at his Walibagh residence on Tuesday.

“Now, it is the time for the establishment and the international community in the region to talk with us to resolve certain important issues and end violence here and bring back peace to the Pakhtuns,” he said.

“Pakhtuns have proved that they are enlightened and peace-loving people with a strong sense of integrity and dignity. The Pakhtuns have nothing to do with fanaticism, extremism or terrorism. The world should see that they have opted for ballots instead of bullets.

They prefer school uniforms, not suicide jackets,” Mr Khan asserted. Thousands of supporters of Khudai Khidmatgar Movement’s founder Bacha Khan from across the province and other parts of the country thronged the Walibagh to greet the party leaders on the party’s impressive victory in the Monday’s polls.

The jubilant workers danced to drum beats as Asfandyar Wali Khan greeted all and sundry who made a beeline to congratulate him on his win in Charsadda.

Meanwhile, ANP provincial president Afrasiab Khattak has said that the masses have proved that Bacha Khan’s philosophy of non-violence is the only effective weapon of a peace-loving people against the prevailing insecurity and violence in the region.

In a press statement issued in Peshawar on Tuesday, Mr Khattak said that the overwhelming victory of their party made it clear that the Pakhtuns were united under the banner of ANP.

He said that the election results greatly disappointed the anti-Pakhtun forces and those elements who propagated violence.

The Pakhtun nation has given its verdict against violence, war, illiteracy and backwardness, he said.

An old party activist, Samar Gul said the Pakhtuns proved that they were united under the red flag of Bacha Khan and the dark period for Pakhtuns ended.