Falling out: ANP leader quits party

Zarshaid contested the 2008 elections from PK-31, Swabi-I, and expected the party would award him the ticket again.

Zarshaid contested the 2008 elections from PK-31, Swabi-I, and expected the party would award him the ticket again. PHOTO: FILE

SWABI:


Former provincial minister for Zakat and Usher, Haji Zarshaid Khan, has quit the Awami National Party (ANP) following differences over allotment of election tickets.



Zarshaid contested the 2008 elections from PK-31, Swabi-I, and expected the party would award him the ticket for the upcoming polls as well. However, the ANP parliamentary board decided to award the ticket to Gul Zamin Shah, after which Zarshaid resigned from his basic party membership along with other party activists who were supporting him.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, Zarshaid accused ANP of changing its decisions while bargaining with potential candidates. “Those who pay are given party tickets,” he alleged, adding such actions were ruining the party’s political and ideological image.

“It is against the ideology of Bacha Khan and Abdul Wali Khan,” he argued, claiming corruption and political bargaining had destroyed ANP in K-P in general and Swabi in particular. Zarshaid stressed he would not leave politics, but maintained he had not decided what step to take next.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2013.
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