US brought miseries to Pakhtuns: Asfandyar

ANP chief says imposing war on Pakhtun land is Trump’s misperception

SHABQADAR: Asfandyar Wali Khan has said that it is US President Donald Trump’s misperception if he thinks he can impose war on Pakhtun land.

“Before him [Trump], all those who went to war on this land tasted defeat,” said the president of Awami National Party (ANP) while addressing party workers at his Wali Bagh residence on the third day of Eidul Azha on Monday.

Urging Trump to play the role of an arbitrator in solving the Afghan issue, the ANP chief said, “If Trump cannot do anything worthwhile, then we Pakhtuns know how to solve issues through dialogue [Jirga].”



Welcoming Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s proposal for talks with Pakistan, he said that Pakistan should respond positively as peace in Pakistan is interrelated to peace in Afghanistan.

He said, “The US war has brought nothing, but miseries to the Pakhtuns and now it wants to extend them even further.”

About the census, Khan said, “The data is incorrect as it shows decreased population of Pakhtuns in Fata. The internally displaced persons’ data and the census data are also different from each other.”

He blamed Punjab for producing inaccurate census results to safeguard its rights.

Predicting the future of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) coalition government in the K-P, he said that JI would leave the coalition government in the K-P and become an opposition party after the 2018 general elections.



Khan said, “The PTI won against deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case. If the PTI sincerely wants a corruption-free Pakistan, it must also inquire about all the guilty persons named in the Panama Papers and the Bank of Khyber scandal.”

He concluded his address by urging the concerned quarters to merge Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) at the earliest to eliminate all lines demarcated between the Fata and the K-P.