PESHAWAR - Awami National Party on Monday announced to have nominated Ameer Bahadar Khan Hoti as its candidate for by-election on NA-120, Lahore.

The seat had fallen vacant after disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Panama leaks case.

ANP Punjab President Manzoor Khan, after having consultation with the party’s provincial cabinet, formally announced nominating its provincial secretary information Ameer Bahadar Khan Hoti as its candidate for contesting the scheduled by-elections on NA-120, a statement said.

Rana Zahid Hussain will be covering candidate for Ammer Bahadar Hoti, the statement further said.

Meanwhile, The Awami National Party (ANP) General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussian has criticised the federal government over the deteriorating law and order situation in the country.

He was addressing a public gathering in the Samandar Gharai area Nowshera on Monday.

Mian Iftikhar also said Pakhtun as a nation had too much suffered from terrorism.

The ANP leader said that time had come to amend the country’s foreign policy, as the existing one had badly failed in protecting Pakistan’s interest regionally and internationally.

He said too much can changes if a party formulate a foreign policy protecting Pakistan’s interest instead of safeguarding the interest of the great powers.

Iftikhar said it is the right time to reformulate a new foreign policy by taking all stake holders and political parties into confidence.

Top most priority of any government either provincial or federal must be to eliminate terrorism, he said.

Both the government and establishment should set together to work out a joint strategy to remove all kind of terrorists and terrorism from Pakistan, saying that Pakhtuns had suffered a lot from militancy.

Condemning the recent acts of violence in Quetta, the ANP general secretary said that the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) is not being fully implemented, due to which, the only general public is suffering the most.

He said that terrorists had dispersed by launching the operation in Waziristan, but they were now regrouping.

He asked the federal government to tell the nation what are the main hurdles in implementing all the 20 points of the NAP.

Why the NAP is not being implemented in Punjab and what are the reasons behind, he asked.

The ANP leader added that nurseries of terrorists are based in Punjab as at least 70 militant organizations are presently collecting donations only in Punjab with different names, which is regrettable.

He said there is no-one to take action against these militant organizations, adding that such organizations are earning a bad name for the country.

Welcoming those who joined the ANP, Mian Iftikhar Hussian said that it reflected that people of the province had been disappointed by the so-called tall claims made by the PTI before having a government in KP.

It means that the PTI had failed to serve people accordingly and that’s why its staunch supporters are now leaving the party and joining the ANP.

Currently, he said, the KP province is experiencing financial and administrative crisis and it had been just because of the wrong policies adopted by the PTI government.

He said the KP government had so far not come up with the peoples’ expectations of bringing a change in the province, which according to Mian Iftikhar is invisible despite governing the province for over four years by the PTI.