Asfandyar asks India, Pakistan to resolve issues through dialogue

Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan has asked India and Pakistan to resolve issues through dialogue as massive resources were being diverted to defence expenditure in both countries. He was addressing a meeting at Saadatabad Utmanzai on Sunday where PPP Charsadda President Taimur Khattak and his associates announced to join the ANP.
He said if the defence expenditure was diverted towards development, the two countries can leave Malaysia and Dubai behind.
Asfandyar Wali stressed the need for taking the Waziristan operation to its logical conclusion. He said the operation in Waziristan cannot be compared with the Swat operation explaining that in Swat local militants had made the life of the people miserable and challenged the writ of the government while in North Waziristan, foreign terrorists, including Arabs, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Afghans, were present. He said if the claim of the army that 90 percent of North Waziristan has been cleared of terrorists, then arrangements be made for honourable return of the IDPs.
He said houses of the people have been destroyed due to operation and it was responsibility of the government to make arrangements for their rehabilitation.
The ANP President said the world considered Pakhtuns as extremists but the Nobel Peace Prize won by Malala Yousafzai has proved beyond doubt that Pakhtuns were pro-development and nationalists.
Referring to the political situation in the country, he said the PTI gave repeated deadlines of hours and waited for raising the finger by third umpire but for the first time in the history of the country, the army general made it clear that the army would not interfere in political matters since than the PTI has been keeping mum about the third umpire.
Asfandyar Wali however criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not taking timely decisions. He said had the Prime Minister ensured registration of FIR in the Model town tragedy and agreed for the recounting of four seats, these issues would not have arisen. He said Nawaz Sharif has learnt from crises and now he sits in the joint sitting of parliament while in the past he avoided to attend the Senate sessions.
He made it clear that the ANP was not defending Nawaz Sharif but fighting for the supremacy of the constitution and parliament. He said the ANP would not oppose the removal of Nawaz Sharif through constitutional means but would be in the forefront if any one tried to remove him through bullet. He said there was no provision for mid-term elections after the 18th Amendment in the Constitution and power rests with the Prime Minister to advice the President for the dissolution of the National Assembly.