ANP threatens to quit coalition govt

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has threatened to leave the ruling alliance if upcoming by-elections were further postponed, ARY News reported on Saturday.

This was stated by the provincial president of the Awami National Party for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Aimal Wali Khan in a post shared on his official Twitter handle.

“ANP has officially conveyed this message to the federal government that if these by-elections are further postponed then, ANP would withdraw from the election and will be quitting the alliance,” Aimal Wali said.

The @ANPMarkaz has officially conveyed this message to the federal government that if these by-elections are further postponed then, ANP would withdraw from the election and will be quitting the alliance. We won’t let the RBM runaway this time.

— Aimal Wali Khan (@AimalWali) October 8, 2022

The statement from ANP comes hours after the interior ministry requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to postpone by-polls scheduled for October 16 for 90 days.

The interior ministry sent a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), requesting the election body for postponing October 16 by-polls.

The letter stated that Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were busy carrying out rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected areas, whereas, the Centre and the provinces were paying attention to the rehabilitation process.

The ministry further stated that a political party wanted to siege Islamabad from October 12 to 17 that could interrupt the by-polls on October 16.

The by-polls for eight vacant seats of the National Assembly will be held on October 16.

The by-polls were scheduled to take place in NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-45 Kurram, NA-108 Faisalabad, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, NA-237 Malir and NA-239 Karachi.