ANP, PPP, JUI-F announce protests, strikes from 10th

PESHAWAR: The three-party alliance of the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Saturday asked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to resign for its alleged involvement in rigging, mismanagement and ill-planning of the May 30 local bodies elections or face an agitation.
“It was a deliberate move to sabotage the local bodies polls. We have decided to launch a movement against the provincial government from June 10,” declared Mian Iftikhar Hussain, president of the alliance and general secretary of the ANP, while addressing a news conference in the company of his party’s allies.
He was flanked by senior leader of the PPP Najmuddin Khan and JUI-F provincial general secretary Maulana Shujaul Mulk.
Mian Iftikhar said the provincial government should immediately resign so that the local bodies elections could be held under a caretaker set-up. “We will start a protest movement if the government does not step down,” he threatened.
It may be added that the PTI chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak had offered to hold re-elections in the province. However, the opposition parties rejected the offer, saying the elections cannot be transparent under the PTI-led government.
According to Mian Iftikhar, those who rigged the elections were culprits and the tripartite alliance would start stage-wise shutdown strike against them in the entire province.
He also invited other opposition parties to join hands with the alliance to get rid of the provincial government. The ANP leader alleged that through a well-orchestrated plan, rigging was done in the polls.
“The government is even now changing the results and the chief minister is visiting homes of independent candidates to bring them into his party’s fold,” he alleged.
The alliance urged the government to announce a compensation package for all those killed during the recent elections.
The ANP’s parliamentary leader in the KP Assembly, Sardar Hussain Babak, and party’s former lawmaker Shagufta Malik, JUI-F’s Abdul Jalil Jan and PPP’s senior leader Rahimdad Khan were also present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Abdul Jalil Jan of the JUI-F announced that his party had postponed its planned Dharna at the Ring Road in Peshawar scheduled for June 7 due to the decision by the tripartite alliance of JUI-F, ANP and PPP to hold a province-wide shutter down strike on June 10.