PESHAWAR: Awami National Party expressed concerns over Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to deploy security personnel inside polling stations as it might increase chances of poll rigging for bringing a ‘certain party into power’.
A local media house reported that former ANP senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, while addressing a presser on Monday said that a few political parties have objected to ECP’s decision to deploy army personnel, adding that ECP should ensure free, fair and impartial elections.
On the occasion, PPP senior worker Mohammad Iqbal Khan along with his relatives quit his party and announced to join ANP. He said that the PPP leadership had forgotten the mission of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto to provide basic facilities to the people.
Bilour expressed shock over the killing of his nephew, Haroon Bilour and other workers in a suicide bombing in Peshawar last week and said that it was an irreparable loss.
Moreover, he stated that his family members were not approached in connection to the probe. However, he said that the tragedy did disturb the campaign, but ANP will not back out from elections when the end is near.
Furthermore, Bilour said that his party believed in democracy and would bring reforms in government departments.
Speaking on the occasion, other ANP leaders alleged that only one political party was running an election campaign freely while others were facing problems in the drive
Meanwhile, ANP senior vice president Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has said that Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar should not have ordered to withdraw security from politicians.
He also backtracked from his statement in which he had stated that “our own people, who have benefited” from his nephew’s murder, not Taliban, were involved in the suicide attack occurred in Peshawar last week.
“I never said that Taliban did not kill Haroon. I stated that those people, who got the most advantage from the killing of Haroon, were involved. I don’t understand as to why we are being targeted,” said Bilour.
Meanwhile, former interior minister Senator Rehman Malik visited Bilour House on Monday to condole the death of Haroon Bilour.
