Pakistan Views

The leader of Awami National Party (ANP) hailed its election win over religious parties as a triumph for moderate forces, but called for international aid to stamp out militancy for good. Asfandyar Wali Khan, chief of the Awami National Party (ANP), an ethnic Pashtun group, said economic assistance and political reconciliation were the key to success in a region where al Qaeda and Taliban militants are holed up.
The ANP could form part of a national coalition government after it deposed the ruling fundamentalists in troubled North West Frontier Province in Monday’s elections.
“The voters have made it clear that they do not want wars and militancy,” Khan told AFP in an interview on Wednesday at his palatial house in the remote town of Charsadda, as armed police stood guard.
“The foremost priority for us now is to restore peace in this province, which is now known worldwide for producing extremists and terrorists,” Khan said.
ANP rallies were bombed twice in the run-up to the polls, killing around two dozen people.
Police installed scanners at the entrance to Khan’s house and thoroughly searched the hundreds of well wishers he greeted in a traditional Pashtun ‘hujra,’ or sitting area, in his house.
The party now has 10 national seats after the parliamentary elections — while the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six religious parties, saw its seats fall from 56 to five. The ANP also clinched 31 out of 99 provincial assembly seats, while the religious party who formerly ruled the province won just nine.
Khan warned however that keeping momentum against extremism involved international economic assistance and ending the political disenfranchisement of many parts of the conservative province. “Our people have given their verdict and now the ball is in the court of the international community to support us in our quest to give our children books and pens instead of Kalashnikovs and suicide jackets,” he said. He blamed the ongoing insurgency in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, and a recent uprising led by a militant cleric in the scenic Swat Valley, on the outgoing administration’s failure to engage the region’s people. “It is in fact the existing sense of deprivation and disenchantment which forced people to launch a rebellion against the government,” Khan said.
Pakistani troops have killed hundreds of militants in the troubled tribal regions bordering Afghanistan since 2001.But Khan was non-committal when asked whether his party would continue to support the Musharraf regime’s support for the US-led “war on terror.” The ANP has previously spoken out against Pakistan’s involvement, saying that a war of foreign powers was being fought on Pakistani soil.
“As far as the war on terror is concerned, this is something being supervised by the central government,” Khan said.
“This is not a provincial matter but we will discuss it with the centre after formation of new governments.” But he was clear of the need to solve the militancy problem.
“God help Pakistan and this region if these moderate forces fail to deliver and rid the country of terrorism, militancy and extremism,” the ANP chief said.