ANP senior leader quits politics

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) senior leader and former federal minister Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has bid farewell to politics, ARY News reported on Thursday citing sources.

The veteran politician, who lost last three elections from Peshawar, announced goodbye to politics and decided to move to Islamabad.

The former railways minister went onto say that 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.

“I was declared a loser in four elections, which I had won. My brother, son and a nephew were martyred by militants,” he has said, adding, “Now I am thinking of shifting to Islamabad.”

Political career

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 defeats t the hands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates.