SWABI: Awami National Party central president Asfandyar Wali Khan on Monday called for a change in the country`s internal and external policies insisting they`re not designed in line with national nee d s.

`Until our internal and external policies are made in accordance with our requirements, it will be difficult for us to come out of the current quagmire,` he told a public meeting held in Karnal Sher Khan village here to marl( the second death anniversary of party leader and former MNAHaji Rehmanullah.

The ANP chief said the country`s relations with three neighbours, including Afghanistan, India and Iran, had weakened due to the government`s wrong policies and priorities.

He added that it was alarming that Iran had threatened to attack Pakistan.

Mr Asfandyar said Pakhtuns suffered in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and that there was hopelessness about their socioeconomic development.

He insisted that PTI chairman Imran Khan had set sights on becoming the prime minister and therefore, he was focused on the most populous province of Punjab instead of militancyhit and economically backward Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The ANP leader said Imran Khan`s dream of becoming the premier would never realise as the KP people had seen the failure of his party`s government duringthelastfouryears.He paid tribute to Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan student Mashal Khan, who was lynched by a mob last month on blasphemy charge, for bravery and asked district nazim Amir Rehman and other party leaders to bear all expenditure of marking the 40th day of his killing on May 21.

Mr Asfandyar praised Mashal`s father for advocating peace on campuses despite losing son in a brutal manner.

He demanded punishment of all those directly or indirectly involved in the lynching incident.

The ANP leader also called for the naming of Swabi university after Mashal.

On the occasion, he insisted that leaders of some political parties were politicising the issue of Fata-KP merger but their acts won`t succeed.

He said if Fata wasn`t merged with KP before the 2018 elections, the people of the tribal region would suffer more.

Mr Asfandyar said it wasironic that KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak was satisfied with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project but his party`s leader and Speaker of the provincial assembly Asad Qaisar had moved the court on the multibillion dollars initiative.

He also said another partner of the ruling coalition, Qaumi Watan Party, was dissatisfied with the corridor project.

ANP parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly Sardar Babak, who was also in attendance, said those claiming to have improve education sector in the province had infact destroyed it as the teaching community was targeted on one pretext or the other.

District nazim Ameer Rehman, son of Haji Rehmanullah, said activists were ready to render more sacrifices for the party.

He thanked speakers and workers for paying tribute to his father.