ANP asks Pak Govt to take parties into confidence over revival of military courts

Islamabad [Pakistan], Jan. 23 (ANI): Addressing a large crowd of Pashtun supporters on the occasion of the death anniversaries of Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and his son Khan Abdul Wali Khan, and days after a bomb blast claimed the lives of 25 people in Parchinar, Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfandyar Wali Khan urged the Pakistan government to take political parties into confidence on revival of military courts in the country. He also called for a multiparty conference on the same, reports the Dawn. Khan talked about various national and regional issues affecting the region and its people. He called for constitutional amendments to provide special grants for tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khan warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he would not be able to run away to Jeddah this time if he failed to fulfill his promise of giving the province its due share of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He sought for documentary proof of CPEC-related projects planned for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the ANP would not be satisfied if these documents were not signed by the Chinese authorities. The ANP president further said that his party would contest the next general election with a new manifesto. Khan pointed out that the provincial and federal governments adopted a discriminatory attitude towards the Bacha Khan University by failing to send their representatives to attend the recently observed first anniversary of a brutal terrorist attack on its students and staff. "Neither the chief minister nor the provincial senior minister hailing from Charsadda district attended the anniversary to acknowledge the sacrifice of the university's students and staff," he regretted. Khan said his party would accept the Supreme Court's verdict on the the Panama Papers case. He said ANP understands the pain felt by families of the victims of terrorism as the party had lost several workers to terrorism. "But their sacrifices have not gone to waste as military operations have hit the terrorists hard," he said. (ANI)