ANP to hold first protest in Swabi

Awami National Party (ANP) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Aimal Wali Khan has announced the start of protest demonstrations across the province against the alleged rigging in election.

He said that the protest drive would start from 20th, with the first demonstration scheduled in Swabi.

Another large-scale protest will be organized in Charsadda on February 23.

In a press statement, he said that these protests would be completely peaceful, adding that if any hindrance was created for the protestors then he would prove to be more dangerous than his grandfather Wali Khan.

He advised the provincial government to let them protest peacefully.

Three days after the February 8 vote, Aimal Wali had rejected the election results outright and announced a K-P wide protest.

Read: ANP concerned over election defeat

Addressing a press conference in Bacha Khan Markaz, Peshawar, Wali had demanded recounting on all seats where ANP candidates finished as runner-up.

“These are the worst elections in the history of the province due to its poll management. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won the elections but at the same time its important leaders lost their seats to the ‘ result change’,” he said, adding that it was part of a conspiracy that ANP’s and PTI’s important leaders had been kept out of assemblies.

He claimed that the polls management started with the closure of mobile phone network across the country. “Let me tell you, this is less election and more selection.”

Those who managed to enter into a deal with the powerful quarters won despite their affiliation with PTI. And those within PTI who didn’t strike a deal lost out,” he alleged, adding that those in power want to have a ‘Balochistan-like’ government in K-P too.

“Even an Afghan national won from Hayatabad because he is acceptable to the establishment,” he said, adding that millions were demanded from the ANP candidates by ROs.

Wali said that only the establishment in this country is free and Pakistan’s debt is going up with each passing year.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th 2024.