Blow to Sharif Govt as ANP severs ties

The ANP decision yesterday to sever its ties with the one-year-old Sharif ministry was prompted by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League’s (PML) refusal to accede to its demand of renaming the province Pukhtoonkhwa.

The ANP will formally announce its decision to quit the Sharif government today in Peshawar and its lone federal minister Mohammad Azam Khan Hoti and three ministers in the NWFP provincial government would also declare their resignation from the respective governments.

The last ditch efforts yesterday by the negotiating team of the PML led by finance minister and party secretary generalSartaj Aziz to be futile as after 45 minute deliberation the PML failed to reach any compromise with the ANP delegation headed by party stalwart Ajmal Khattak and provincial chief Begum Nasim Wali, daughter-in-law of Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.The ANP minister in NWFP government, Farid Toofan, was quoted by media that the PML team asked his party to choose another name instead of Pukhtoonkhwa but “we said we have already chosen Pukhtoonkhwa. They said the PML cannot support Pukhtoonkhwa. We said in that case we cannot be allies.”

The ANP dominated NWFP provincial assembly had earlier passed a resolution with regard to changing the province’s name to Pukhtoonkhwa but it needs to be passed by the national assembly dominated by the PML.

Expressing his displeasure over premier Nawaz Sharif avoiding the meeting with ANP, Asfandyar Wali said, “we are pained to see that Prime Minister Sharif did not come to our crucial meeting on Pukhtoonkhwa with PML despite our old alliance. Instead he sentothers.”

The ANP-PML break-up came close on the heels of differences between PML and another ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the largest ethnic party in Sindh representing the Mohajirs (migrants).

In fact Sharif had gone to Karachi to meet MQM leaders and oversee the law and order situation in the city in the wake of an upsurge in violence which saw more than 15 people killed in group clashes and sectarian violence. The Pukhtoonkhwa issue has dogged the PML-ANP alliance for the last three months and ANP had claimed it had supported the government at the peak of the judiciary crises because Sharif had committed to accept the renaming demand.Sharif, however, had denied making any such commitment.

The break-up has already fuelled speculation of another round of political instability and horse-trading in the NWFP in particular and further trouble for the Sharif government.

ANP leader Begum Nasim Wali Khan, according to media reports, has already dropped hint at joining hands with Benazir Bhutto’sPakistan People’s Party.