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Thursday March 28, 2024

Regional parties want due share for Hazara in KP cabinet

By Syed Kosar Naqvi
January 28, 2023

ABBOTTABAD: The Hazara-based political parties on Friday criticized the process of selection of the caretaker cabinet after alleging that the Hazara Division had not been given a proper share in ministries while those with strong political affiliations and having huge resources had been picked instead of following merit.

Talking to this scribe, the leaders of Hazara Qoumi Mahaz and Tehreek-e-Suba Hazara felt that merit had been flouted in forming the caretaker cabinet which, they feared, would impact the exercise of holding free and fair elections.

Central President of Tehreek-e-Suba Hazara, Sultan-Ul-Arfeen Khan, said the selection of caretaker setup amounts to a conflict of interests, as the selection is based on the whims and wishes of the few political parties.

He believed that the people of Hazara always faced a stepmotherly attitude and were deprived of legitimate rights. “I will attend a seminar on the topic “Challenges faced by the KPK” scheduled to be arranged in Peshawar and will raise this issue,” he vowed.

Chairman of Hazara Qoumi Mahaz, Qazi Muhammad Azhar, criticized the selection of a caretaker government and said that free and fair elections were not possible under this setup as nominees of different political parties had been included in the cabinet instead of non-partisan people.

He was critical of taking only one member of a political party from the Battagram district in the 14-member caretaker cabinet while ignoring the rest of the Hindko belt of Hazara.

Qazi Muhammad Azhar pointed out that prominent educationists and people from other walks of life were present in Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra districts who should have been a good choice for the caretaker cabinet but that was not done which was deplorable.

A member of Tehreek-e-Suba Hazara and noted social activist, Sardar Fida Hussain, said the caretaker setup vividly proved that the elite always remains in the saddle and true representation was denied to common people.

“The Hindko population of Hazara Division has been denied representation in the caretaker setup on purpose to dent the popular struggle for the winning the province’s status for Hazara,” he went on to add.

Sardar Fida said that the interim cabinet has been constituted visibly with the consensus of all parties which shows that all major parties are united against the creation of the Hazara province.