Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

Asfandyar, family leave for UK

Saturday, October 11, 2008

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan left Islamabad for London on Thursday with his family after reportedly receiving more threats to his life.

He survived a suicide attack last week which killed six people, including his bodyguards. Sources confirmed that Asfandyar and his family members were given full protocol at the Heathrow Airport in London by officials of the Pakistan High Commission, who were said to have taken him to Birmingham, where he would stay with his sister.

ANP Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, confirming to The News Asfandyar’s departure, claimed that he had gone there to attend a family engagement. ANP MNA Arbab Mohammad Zahir said he did not know his party’s leader’s schedule and his return date.

His sudden departure surprised many as Asfandyar Wali Khan was supposed to be a key player in deciding the Taliban policy of the government inside and outside parliament. Some analysts think his absence from the political scene, if for a prolonged period, may boost the morale of Taliban. After the Wali Bagh attack, Asfandyar had moved to Islamabad.

http://thenews. jang.com. pk/top_story_ detail.asp? Id=17754

Re: Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

sigh Pakistan is in for a really rough time.

Re: Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

Pathans are brave and do not run away.

A short trip abroad is normal.

Re: Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

Are you seriously saying that every Pathan around the world is a brave man just because he is a Pathan? When will we grow out of these jahil ideas that your cultural background suddenly makes you super-human.

Some of his family members live in Birmingham.

You don't seem to realise the ANP is a Pukhtoon nationalist party, and it's members are proud to live up to the Pukhtoon warrior ethos.

I don't expect you to acknowledge this.

Re: Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

Wow. Just wow. So basically you are stating that you can't be a coward if you are Pathan. So when the ANP leader stays in the UK for a few months....would you willing to accept you are wrong?

Lets not get racist here. Pathans, Pashtuns, Pakhtuns are human being just as any other, they sell out just as easily as anyone else, they are as lota as anyone else, all this "ghairat" and "bravery" is more symbolic now. Pre-9/11 and post 9/11 Afghanistan should be a clear example of that. Now lets get back to topic.

Are you kidding me? Why did the brave gentleman moved to "Aiwan-e-Sadr" after the suicide attack till he finally flew to uk?

Any news if he is back?
Will we start seeing an exit of those people who can afford to get out before any real trouble starts?

Will NWFP become an unsafe place to live and if things get worse will we start seeing internally displaced refugees?

It would be costly but in a way it would be good to relocate these people to lower Punjab or in interior Sindh.

Re: Asfandyar, family leave for UK?

And sindhis or seraikis will allow that?

PS Maybe altaf will give some rooms in his house since it is the "age of reconciliation" these days initiated by Zardari shaheed (r).