Conspirators out to get census delayed: Iftikhar

NOWSHERA: Awami National Party (ANP) general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Saturday that census has been deliberately delayed to deprive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of its due share.

Speaking at a gathering here, he said that conspirators were out to create hurdles in the holding of the census. He alleged that facts and figures in the previous census had been distorted to hide the actual number of Pakhtuns living in the country.

“All this has been done to deprive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of its due share,” he added. He called for merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying the British Raj divided Pakhtuns to weaken them.

“Now the time has come to merge the tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he added.Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, the nationalist leader said that he cannot afford annoying Punjab and thus adopted silence on the discrimination meted out to Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

He accused the PTI chief of taking political matters to courts in a bid to topple the government.

The ANP leader said the PTI-led government had failed to plead the case of the province in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in an effective manner to secure rights for the province.“Imran Khan and Pervez Khattak want power and they don’t bother to care for the welfare of the people,” he added.Mian Iftikhar said the PTI had no ideology and its leaders lacked vision.