Khwaja Muhammad Hoti, the anti-narcotics minister, belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), has resigned from the federal capital. Mr. Hoti based his decision on the disappointing performance of ANP in their provincial government in NWFP while also charging the party with widespread corruption.

Mr. Hoti regarded the provincial government’s performance in the troubled areas of the province as a failure, especially in maintaining law and order. For this reason, he also proposed that the chief minister of the province should resign from his position. At the same time, Mr. Hoti said that he would not end his party membership and continue to serve the party as a member. A spokesman from the ANP rejected Hoti’s allegations as baseless and added that a show cause notice would be served on Hoti for violating the party discipline.

At the moment, ANP remains the leading opponent to fundamentalists and terrorist groups, which are inflicting fear and sufferings on people in Swat and some other parts of or adjacent to the NWFP. The fundamentalists in Swat had recently declared a list of ‘wanted’ people and majority of them were ministers and members of ANP.

Since ANP is the leading, and only, political representative of the Pakhtoon population in NWFP (and the rest of the country), fighting off the challenge of terrorism in the province calls for unity and cohesion in the party. For honest ministers, these are the times to keep their seats and continue serving the broader cause of peace and development of their regions.