Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Monday suspended the basic membership of two senior party leaders for ‘violating the party discipline and damaging its interests’.

According to a statement issued by the party, the ANP leadership issued show-cause notices to Senior Vice-President Bushra Gohar and former senator Afrasiab Khattak last week, and suspended their memberships after both failed to submit a satisfactory response.

The show-cause notice was issued by ANP Central General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain on the directives of President Asfandyar Wali Khan. “Your activities are against the party’s interests, its constitution and discipline that have resulted in huge loss to the party,” the show-cause notice read. “Your activities had a negative effect on the workers and created confusion and led to misunderstandings that damaged the party’s interests,” it added.

The party had asked the two leaders to submit their response within seven days or face disciplinary action.

“Their responses are not satisfactory at all, therefore the party president has suspended their basic membership according to the party constitution,” the notification read. However, the notification did not state the exact charges or details of the activities the two leaders had been suspended for.

“Political workers can be unfairly expelled from pol party but they can’t be expelled from politics. We shall steadfastly continue struggle against all forms of oppression, suppression & exploitation. My heartfelt thanks to all dear friends for solidarity,” Khattak said in a tweet following his suspension.

Published in Daily Times, November 13^th 2018.