Asad Qaiser wants KP CM to stop contacts with Centre

PESHAWAR: Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former speaker of National Assembly, Asad Qaiser, on Friday asked Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to stop contacts with the federal government, saying that the Centre was neither sincere nor willing to help resolve the pressing issues of the terror-hit province.

“Though it was a difficult job for us to work with the federal government, we sincerely sat down with them and our aim was to serve the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But the federal government is neither sincere nor serious in its approach to help resolve the serious problems facing the province,” said Asad Qaiser.

He said he had talked to Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in this regard and both agreed to take a tough stance if the federal government didn’t change its policy.

Talking to The News, the PTI leader said they were aware that party politics was a different matter than governing a province and they didn’t want to create any uncertainty in the country.

“We had taken a bold decision to work together with the federal government as you can’t resolve issues without sitting with someone. But in the past month, we realised that the federal government was not sincere with us and that’s why I advised our chief minister to stop contacting the federal government,” the PTI leader explained.

Asad Qaiser said the KP government had demanded a chief secretary for the province but the federal government had refused to give the chief secretary of choice even after a month.

“It is the basic right of every provincial government to have a trustworthy chief secretary in the province. We didn’t make any unjust demand but the federal government made it an issue,” he complained.

Besides that, Asad Qaiser said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had badly suffered in the past two decades of violence and terrorism but it has always been kept deprived of its own rights.

“The federal government is required to pay us billions in arrears in terms of net hydel profit. Then we never received our full share in the National Finance Commission from the federal government,” Asad Qaiser pointed out, saying these were the issues that compelled them to stop the approach of reconciliation.

He said the KP government decided to launch the politics of resistance to achieve their objectives. “We are living in a war zone. There are no jobs and no business opportunities because of nonstop war in the region. And on the other hand, the federal government is pushing us to the wall. We are having a small budget for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and we are spending on the tribal districts as the federal government and other federating units didn’t fulfil their obligations to pay share for the development of the erstwhile tribal areas after their merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the PTI leader argued.

He said the KPO government would not like to create any uncertainty in the country but the federal government must take note of their sufferings and listen to their grievances.