Need of the hour: Asfandyar urges ANP workers to encourage women voters

Says candidates who try to bar women from the booths will be expelled

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has urged his party workers to encourage women to vote during the local government elections.

Addressing a public rally organised on Saturday at Tehmash Khan Stadium in the provincial capital, he said any ANP candidate who tries to bar women from voting will be expelled from the party.

“I have also asked ANP K-P Chief Amir Haider Khan Hoti to investigate the low turnout of women in the by-polls in Lower Dir,” he said. “If any candidate from my party is found to be involved, he or she will no longer be a part of ANP.”

Clash of priorities

Asfandyar said he will not accept any changes to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“It has come to our notice the original plan is being altered to include Lahore in the mega project,” he added.

The ANP leader said the project was envisaged in the previous government’s tenure.

“Lahore was initially not part of the project,” he said. “ANP will never allow anyone to change the original route.”

According to the ANP chief, the federal government is repeatedly accusing people of being traitors for opposing changes to the route. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said those who are opposing changes to the route are enemies of development in Pakistan,” he said. “I strongly disagree with this statement and will not be threatened by allegations levelled against us.”

Asfandyar said China started this project to counter militancy and extremism in Xinxiang province.

“The federal government should contemplate similar goals for K-P and the tribal belt,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2015.