Tariq Saeed Peshawar
While the Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has reportedly decided not to context the polls scheduled to be held on February 8 2023, the Party senior leadership has warned against stripping off the Party from its long kept election symbol Lantern. “We apprehend that snatching of our party’s electoral symbol was also being mulled over in a balancing act to prove another judgment as right (reference to PTI). But this time we will not forget if new wounds were inflicted upon us”. Central Senior Vice President Awami National Party (ANP) Ameer Haider Khan Hoti cautioned.
In fact the ANP leader’s comments came after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reserved its verdict on the party’s request for the grant of six months to conduct intra-party elections, risking the possibility of losing its polls symbol ‘lantern’. The commission had earlier declared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) intra-party polls “unconstitutional” and stripped off the Party of its famous election symbol Bat.
“May Allah prove it wrong, but they might take a decision against the ANP to prove one judgment right,” AmeerHaider Hoti said in an obvious reference to the Election Commission of Pakistan adding that this move was being attempted to be executed in a similar fashion as verdicts against Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Supremo Nawaz Sharif and Jahangir Khan Tareen were delivered.
