ISLAMABAD - Central President Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali Khan came down hard on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government yesterday and remarked the PTI-led provincial government has become ‘house maid’ of Bani Gala, the residential villa of Imran Khan.
Condemning target killing of ANP’s senior office-bearer in Swat on Sunday and kidnapping of another worker in Bannu, Asfandyar claimed the ruling PTI in KP was not serious in eliminating safe havens of terrorists and their facilitators.
In a statement issued here, Asfandyar demanded that the National Action Plan (NAP) should be extended to each nook and corner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and that the anti-terror plan should not be confined to the tribal parts only.
“Terrorists will continue to target political leadership till the NAP is extended to each street in the KP. They (terrorists) want to disconnect the ANP with the masses. But we will not bow down. We will fight,” Asfandyar said.
He said the kidnapping of its office-bearer in Bannu was an evidence that the PTI-led provincial government still believed in ‘strategic presence’ of terrorists despite that the entire nation was united to confront the militants.
“Lack of serious action against terrorists indicates that the provincial government does not want complete elimination of terrorists and their facilitators. Senator Sirajul Haq should join hands with his coalition partners in eradicating the menace of terrorism. But he (Haq) only is active in making headlines in media,” the ANP chief said.
He argued the country will not get rid of terror factories until the ongoing military offensive is expanded to the settled districts in KP. “National institutions and political leadership will continue to suffer until the last terrorist survives,” he remarked.
In a separate development, the President ANP KP and former Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti said it was not the first and last time that terrorists had targeted ANP leaders. He said hundreds of party workers including ministers had rendered sacrifices and were mercilessly killed by terrorists.
He said the PTI-led provincial government was last bothered about tackling the chronic challenge of militancy in the province and was instead indulged in making political score by politicizing unnecessary issues.