TSH leaders ask MPAs from Hazara to quit

CPEC western route resolution in assembly

MANSEHRA: Tehreek-i-Subah Hazara (TSH) has asked the lawmakers from Hazara division to tender resignation due to their failure to defend the interests of Hazara in the provincial assembly which adopted a resolution in support of the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“It is an open secret that people like Chief Minister Pervez Khattak are against any sort of development and prosperity in Hazara division. This is the reason we want a separate federating unit,” lawyer Mushtaq Khan, convener of TSH told a press conference here on Tuesday.

Flanked by TSH’s vice president Iqbal Khan Swati, he said that they were not against development in any part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but mega development projects in Hazara were never tolerated by some political parties. He said that MPAs belonging to all political parties from Hazara should tender their resignations from the provincial assembly for backing the anti-Hazara resolution.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was protecting its own political interests.  “Hassanabdal-China motorway project is a natural route for centuries and China wants to develop this shortest route for the multibillion dollar CPEC project,” he argued.

Speaking on the occasion, Iqbal Khan Swati said such injustices were the main cause behind their movement for a Hazara separate province. “Hazara province is inevitable and the federal government should adopt a resolution in the National Assembly giving status of a province to Hazara,” he stressed.

He said that people of Hazara had never opposed directly or indirectly development projects being executed under CPEC in other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.