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Asfandyar, Afrasiab had $35mn deal with US: Hoti
Senator Azam Khan Hoti has accused Awami National Party (ANP) leaders Asfandyar Wali Khan and Afrasiab Khattak of taking approximately $35 million from the United States as part of a secret agreement.
During a news conference in Peshawar, Azam Hoti said the ANP leaders had disappeared for ten days in the US and their mobile phones remained switched off during that time.
He alleged that a former member of National Assembly and Pakistani-born US citizen Nasim-ur-Rehman assisted to finalise the agreement between American authorities and Asfandyar Wali.
Nasim-ur-Rehman first held a meeting with Asfandyar Wali and then met with Begum Naseem Wali. A cheque was also handed over to Afrasiab Khattak, whereas, the account was in the bank of an Arab country.
He added that he had no proof for these allegations but he was tabling these facts keeping the ground realities into consideration.
Earlier this month, the ANP had ejected Senator Azam Khan Hoti from the party on grounds of violating party discipline by demanding the resignation of Asfandar Wali and Afrasiab Khattak.
Hoti had warned a couple of weeks ago that if former party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan did not quit soon, he would open up a ‘Pandora’s Box’ against him.
Hoti leveled another barrage of accusations against the top leadership. Hoti said that the Asfandyar Wali and Khattak had travelled to the US for negotiations and that the two “disappeared” for a period of ten days.
He said the two accepted money to enter into a secret pact with the US against the interests of the “Pashtun homeland”.
Azam Hoti is the father of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti and a brother-in-law of Asfandyar Wali Khan. He has previously held Asfandyar responsible for the party’s massive defeat in general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
On the other hand, ANP leader Zahid Khan said Hoti had effectively rejected his own claims by saying he had no documentary evidence to support them.
Speaking outside the Parliament House in Islamabad, Khan said that conspiracies and failed attempts to topple the ANP leadership was not a new phenomenon, and Hoti’s allegations were a continuation of the same phenomenon. Khan questioned why Hoti had not raised the allegations while he was enjoying the perks of being a minister during the previous ANP government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.