The leadership of Awami National Party still seems under the illusion that playing Pukhtun Card will do magic once again in reclaiming their lost vote bank in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. Addressing a public meeting at Amangarh near Nowshera, ANP Central President AsfandiyarWali announced calling a grand Pukhtun Jirga for the protection of their rights. He complained of double standard being applied in accountability process and raised the bogey of likely scraping the 18th amendment.
People of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa had given an overwhelming mandate to ANP in 2008 elections in the hope that its leadership will fulfill the promises made to them in the shape of fairplay, adherence to merit and demonstrate absolute honesty in financial matters which used to be the hallmark of its former leadership. The violation of merit in recruitments for monetary gains and financial irregularities in governance dinted the popularity of the party and the people of province did not give mandate to ANP in two successive general elections. On the contrary PTI partially restored merit in recruitment by including the written test score in, largely reduced the manipulative interview marks and enhanced the weightage of academic marks in Public Service Commission selection criteria. Absolute merit has been restored in the appointment of school teachers.
The central leadership of PTI has repeatedly made it clear that it has no intention of amending the 18th Amendment which a section of legal experts perceive to have changed the federal structure of the constitutions. Federating units sometimes derive sweeping power from this amendment and provincial legislatures do legislations repugnant to Article-143 of the constitution. The legal fraternity in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa has been protesting for the past three weeks against the passage and enactment of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019 and amendment in laws of Civil Jurisprudence. It vindicates the critical stance of legal minds against certain provisions of 18th Amendment though ANP and PPP leaders are using it as a political tool to mislead people.
