JI leader vows to intensify efforts for creation of Hazara province

HARIPUR: The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Hazra province head Abdul Razzaq Abbasi on Friday said that his party leadership was committed to intensifying efforts for the creation of Hazara province.

“Though our party is out of the parliament, out leadership has the commitment to end the deprivations of people of Hazara by carving out Hazara province from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through street power,” he told journalists here.

He said that the leadership of all the mainstream political parties, including PMLN and PTI have supported the demand for creation of Hazara province in the past and the JI being coalition partner of PTI in the KP had, too, supported the resolution for Hazara province. “There are more than two resolutions for Hazara province pending with the National Assembly but PMLN despite being in the driving seat at federal level and PTI at KP level have failed to honour their words,” he lamented. He added that the leadership of both the parties had betrayed their electorates from Hazara and the reason was that their elected representatives from Hazara lacked the courage to assertively pursue the popular demand of their voters.

To a question, Abbasi, who himself was among the frontline leaders advocating and agitating for Hazara province with the chief of Tehreek- i- Sooba Hazara late Baba Haider Zaman during 2010, said that JI’s think-tank had worked minutely to check the economic and administrative viability of the Hazara province and found it viable solution for ending the administrative and resource distribution gaps in the Peshawar centered provincial set up.

“How distressing is it that the poor residents of Kohistan, Torghar, Battagram and other districts are forced to travel arduously and frequently to Peshawar exposing them to umpteenth physical, psychological and economic hardships for even minor nature administrative and job related matters,” he claimed.