PESHAWAR, Nov 11: The Awami National Party (ANP) has planned to step up campaign for registering more women as its workers during the membership drive.

`Awami National Party has hundreds of women members, who have played vital part in politics. The new strategy is aimed at reaching more women and bringing them into the party fold for the benefit of people,` ANP provincial vice president Shagufta Malik said.

She said that ANP wasn`t a gender-based party therefore no separate campaign was launched for the membership of women rather they were being registered as members during the general drive.

According to Ms Malik, ANP chapters at district and union council level are spearheading the campaign and they are tasked to convey the message of non-violence of Bacha Khan to the women and seek solution to chronic issue of terrorism.`The campaign will enable us to remain in touch with women and utilise them as means to implement our agenda of peace. Our party`s motive is to have peace everywhere as without it we can`t go forward, she said.

Ms Malik said that they had already women members, whose families were ideologically associated with Khudai Khidmatgar movement but in the recent campaign the focus would be on those women, who had either no political affiliations or were unhappy with their parties.

She said that ANP was pursuing peace efforts despite killing of it workers by militants because it believed that violence was no solution to conflicts.

She said that in the last general elections when ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan was advised by the party to stay away from public meetings in view of looming threats to his life, his election campaign was conducted by women in hishome constituency in Charsadda that showed that they were capable to shoulder greater responsibilities in future.

Ms Malik said that registering more women as members meant to further empower them and entrust them with responsibilities for the benefit of the people.

`We desperately need to scale up level of political awareness of women at the grassroots,` she said.

Meanwhile, ANP provincial spokesman Advocate Sadruddin Marwat has warned political parties, especially Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf and Jamaat-i-Islami against political point scoring at the cost of solidarity of the country.

He said that ruling parties should honour their promises of restoration of peace and holding talks with Taliban.

He said that people voted the ruling parties into power to establish peace while the all parties conference also mandated them to restore normalcy in the country.