CM ready to dissolve KP Assembly

MANSEHRA/ABBOTTABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday said he would not wait for even a moment to dissolve the KP Assembly if ordered by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

“I want to communicate my message to the masses in the presence of the media. I am a soldier and down-to-earth worker of Imran Khan. This government is his trust with me and the assembly would be dissolved after he gives the nod,” he told a public gathering after inaugurating work on two hydropower projects in the Jabori area of Mansehra here.

The chief minister earlier inaugurated a 300-megawatt Balakot Hydropower Project to be executed with Rs95 billion cost and a 10-megawatt Jabori Hydropower Project completed with Rs3.7 billion.

He said the PTI government enjoys a two-thirds majority in the provincial assembly and no confidence and the governor rule’s mantra was nothing but just bubbles in the air. “The federal government and its allied parties are making false claims about ditching my government through a no-confidence move or governor’s rules as I have the 2/3 majority in the assembly,” added Mahmood Khan.

The chief minister accused the federal government of being an imported one which, he said, was avoiding general elections to avoid an imminent defeat. He alleged that leaders from the federal government got quashed cases of corruption and embezzlement instituted against them after amending the National Accountability Bureau law and were now afraid of facing public accountability in the general elections.

Mahmood Khan said calling off the long march didn’t mean that his party’s struggle for the Haqiqi Azadi (real freedom) had ended as Imran Khan was still in the lead. He flayed the federal government and accused it of withholding the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa funds but said these designs would be defeated.

The chief minister told the gathering that two hydropower projects, which he had inaugurated earlier in the day, would bring employment opportunities and prosperity to the Hazara division.

“Balakot Hydropower Project would be completed in seven years and give an annual revenue of Rs15 billion,” he said. The chief minister, who inaugurated a trout fish hatchery, announced the tehsil status for the Tanawal area of the district.

Babar Saleem Swati, advisor to chief Ministers on Interior, Ahmad Hussain Shah and special assistant for Population, addressed the gathering as well. Later, during a brief visit to Abbottabad, the chief minister said PTI legislators in the KP Assembly would follow Imran Khan’s decision if asked to resign from the assembly.