Hoti had earlier lashed out at former ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, saying the latter should step down and stop getting involved in the party’s affairs. PHOTO: FILE
Hoti had earlier lashed out at former ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, saying the latter should step down and stop getting involved in the party’s affairs. He also threatened to make startling revelations about Wali and maintained Afrasiab Khattak should be expelled from the party.
Following his tirade, the party’s leadership issued a show-cause notice to Hoti and asked him to clarify his stance.
Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, Hoti, however, chose to level some more allegations against the party’s stalwarts.
“If we want to keep the Khudai Khidmatgar movement intact, we have to keep Asfandyar Wali Khan out of the party’s affairs,” said Hoti. “Afrasiab Khattak must also be expelled as he is not even part of the Pukhtun movement.”
“I cannot tolerate this person to be part of the party anymore,” Hoti said of Khattak, who he claimed was not a Pukhtun leader or an individual, but a “mindset”. He went on to add ANP’s central, provincial and district leadership should have resigned from their positions following the defeat in the May 11 general elections.
While appreciating former information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s contribution to the party, Hoti said he wanted Asfandyar to respond to his statements and not Hussain. “My family and party workers have rendered great sacrifices for the movement and we cannot bear to see the party’s leadership in the hands of inefficient people who failed us in the elections,” he claimed.
Hoti added there are other capable people in ANP who should get together and discuss the revival of the Pukhtun movement in a rational manner. “We cannot draw a line between Wali Bagh and the ANP as the movement cannot move forward without them. However, Asfandyar is not able to run the movement.”
Despite his accusations, Hoti refused to provide any evidence to substantiate and support his claims. He said doing so would “create fissures in the party.” Nonetheless, he warned of opening a ‘Pandora’s Box’ against anyone who tries to argue with him. “Neither will I indulge in mudslinging nor will I allow anyone else to.”
Referring to instances in which he supported Asfandyar Wali, Hoti said he vouched for the former’s nomination as the party chief, but would not do so anymore.
Expressing grievances over Haider Khan Hoti’s tenure as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Hoti said he remained silent during ANP’s five-year rule in the province. “The CM’s post was given to Haider Khan Hoti on the condition that he would neither consult me nor come under my influence,” alleged the senior leader.
Commenting on rumors about his plans to join the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he vowed to remain with ANP until he dies.
“The PML-N has never contacted me to join the party,” he said, adding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has great respect for the ANP and is not trying to create divisions or break up the party. “I am neither a communist nor a socialist, but a nationalist and will never leave the party of Pukhtuns.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2013.
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