Daily Times

Awami National Party (ANP) senior leader Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has bid farewell to politics. The veteran politician said goodbye to politics and decided to move to Islamabad from Peshawar after successive defeats in the elections and changes to the ANP leadership.

Speaking to media, Bilour said “he doesn’t meet the standards of powerful quarters that’s why he was defeated four times in the political selection process.” He said his brother Bashir Bilour and nephew Haroon Bilour were martyred and he did not find any reason to stay in Peshawar as he had no interest in politics anymore. Ghulam Ahmad Bilour started politics in 1970s with the ANP. He contested 12 general elections from 1988 to 2024 from his ancestral constituency in Peshawar. He lost in his first run for the NA seat in 1988 from Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao but succeeded in the by-elections afterwards. He also defeated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990 election and became minister for railways in Nawaz Sharif-led federal cabinet. He was defeated by former prime minister Imran Khan in 2013 election and couldn’t make it to the National Assembly in 2018 and 2024 after successive losses at the hands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates.