The killing took place near the residence of ANP leader where the ANP and PTI workers clashed after the results of local government elections, held in KP on May 30, were announced. The ANP workers alleged large-scale rigging and this view is endorsed by the Pakistan People’s Party too. The Pakistan People’s Party joined hands with the ANP in demanding re-polling in constituencies which were marred by rigging and malpractices during the recent local government elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and sought immediate resignation of the chief minister Pervez Khattak.

The PPP Secretary General and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf too rapped the PTI in a written statement for its duplicity in the recent polls and challenged the claims of good governance, transparency and fair elections of the PTI which the PPP leader blames for keeping “the nation on tenterhooks for six months and unabashedly attacked and de-sanctified the Parliament House in Islamabad for rigging in 2013 elections has itself resorted to worst kind of gerrymandering and fraud in the local body polls in the province” The PTI chief’s logic that the Election Commission of Pakistan , and not the provincial government, was responsible for electoral fraud and violence on polling day when over a dozen people were killed, does not hold much water, according to several senior political analysts.

The cause of ANP and PPP got a fillip when the Pak federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid also snapped fingers at the PTI that runs the K-P government for arresting Hussain. The federal minister described the act as the worst example of political victimization by the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it proved that both the KP police and administration were tools in the hands of PTI supremo Imran Khan. Rashid criticized the provincial government for large-scale mismanagement and widespread irregularities “having no precedent anywhere”. He ridiculed the PTI chief for thriving on the culture of sit-ins and assaults. There was total lawlessness in the entire K-P on polling day. Interestingly, the PTI got just 25 per cent votes in the LG polls in contrast to 75 p.c., polled by the Opposition.

The ANP which performed poorly in the last national election winning just two out of 272 seats in the lower house, the National Assembly. It won both the seats from K-P wherefrom PTI won 17 and even the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) won four seats. ANP was afflicted when the mainstream ANP,led by the former member of NA, Asfandyar Wali Khan, was challenged by his step mother , who severed relationship with the ANP and formed Awami National Party-Wali in 2006 . But now it’s evident that Begum Nasim is as yet no threat to the ANP, Her demand that she is the genuine heir of Bacha Khan’s dynasty has cut no ice, although Begum Nasim is the first Pakistani woman to be elected on one National Assembly and one provincial assembly general seats in 1977 election. She joined the politics when her husband, Abdul Wali Khan, was imprisoned. She proved her mettle but I is not in sync with the present political reality in Pakistan reality which underwent great changes during the last three decades

The recharged ANP took the lead in organizing a multi-party conference in Quetta on May 16 to discuss the issue of Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its proposed route. The party sensed the Balooch impulse and joined other Baloch nationalist parties in the claim that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been ignored in the 3,000- kilometre long Gwadar-Kashghar route of CPEC. 'We have approached and invited all political parties to the all parties conference (APC),' said the now-arrested ANP leader at a news conference in Quetta The party organized a shutter down strike in Quetta on May 6 against the reported change in CPEC.

Iftikhar criticized the federal government for creating deliberate controversy, at the cost of smaller provinces. Deprivation of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was at peak, but Islamabad was not paying heed to the sufferings of smaller provinces, he asserted. 'Rulers must take people of Gwadar into confidence before taking any decision', he added. The project is part of Beijing's “Belt and Road” plan to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia. It may be of advantage to Punjab

China will have easier access to Middle Eastern oil via the deepwater port of Gwadar, but Beijing ignores the interests of smaller provinces alleging the project has been altered to benefit Punjab. Apparently, the route under its original plan ran from Gwadar to Quetta, then up to Zhob before veering east towards Dera Ismail Khan. To be more precise, the central route will link Gwadar, Khuzdar and other areas on way to Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar, while the eastern route will connect Gwadar to Ratodero, Sukkur and Karachi and upward to cities in Punjab and from there to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and then Khunjerab Pass. The Gwadar port is near the mouth of the Gulf of Oman, east of the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the Middle East's crude production passes. Its control was passed to a Chinese company in 2013 on the plea of development..

If ANP makes a dent in Sindh alongside its signs of come back in K-P, the party which is regarded as the most secular party in Pakistan where the military-feudal combine still calls the shots, may regain its position perceptibly. And if it happens, it may mean evaporation of halo of former cricketer who did not as yet played with a straight bat in a State where the yearning for stronger democracy is on the rise. (IPA Service)