PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to boycott by-elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on National Assembly seats in protest against the decision of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) whose sole candidate will contest on multiple seats.
ANP leader Aimal Wali Khan said on Wednesday his party would not take part in the elections as a certain party, without naming PTI, brings only one candidate, former prime minister Imran Khan, to contest on all the seats.
“A so-called political party (PTI) has made a joke of the electoral system. They are wasting billions of rupees of public exchequer by nominating only one candidate for multiple seats and then there will be the repeat of the voting exercise in case one candidate wins these seats as he can retain only one seat,” Wali Khan rued.
He claimed that a certain party was busy in creating an atmosphere of political intolerance and sullying the parliament’s prestige.
Keeping in view the severe economic crisis the country was going through, it would be an injustice if billions would be spent on by-elections when general polls were due after three months.
Wali Khan said that the ANP had announced its candidates for the polls on 18 NA seats and the party was ready to contest the polls.
“If general elections will be held tomorrow, the ANP is ready to contest polls with full force,” he asserted.
He said that the request to boycott the by-elections came from the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
“The ANP has decided not to take part in the by-elections after holding consultations with all of its allies,” Wali Khan said, thanking party workers who ran a “vigorous” election campaign in a short period of time.
