From ‘top’ means Banigala and Imran, says Khattak

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak said on Monday that by telling JI chief Sirajul Haq that there was an order from the ‘top’ meant orders from PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who has a residence in Banigala.

Talking to media persons here after appearing before an anti-terrorist court and signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of a hyrdopower project of 300 megawatt in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said that he had floated the proposal of having chairman Senate from Balochistan for its mainstreaming and deputy chairman from Fata.

Khattak said with this proposals, he went to others and explained to them why it was necessary to have the chairman and deputy chairman from Balochistan and Fata. He added JI chief misunderstood what he explained to him.

Replying to a question about a controversy regarding having received orders from the top for voting for Sadiq Sanjrani, he made it clear that only Allah Almighty could order him while Imran could give him the party orders; none else could give him an order and he would also not obey such order.

“I explained to Sirajul Haq sahib that we have orders from the top, meaning thereby from Imran Khan to vote for the candidate from Balochistan for the post of Senate chairman and I asked him to also support him,” Khattak maintained. He added had the Fata members stood by the PTI, they would have today their man as the Senate deputy chairman. He dared Nawaz Sharif to take action against those lawmakers who did not vote for his party candidates.

About the electricity project, he said that the project cost was Rs70 billion and the provincial government would be supported by the Asian Development Bank and it would be the biggest power generation project in the province.

Khattak claimed that his province had managed to generate 74MW electricity, whereas the previous two governments could together generate 81MW electricity. “Immediately after assuming charge in the province, we started projects for increasing power generation and presently, the province has the potential of 10,000MW power generation,” he said. He alleged that the federal government did not cooperate with his government on several power projects.

In the ongoing war of words between PTI and JI, PTI’s Information Secretary Fawad Chaudhry called on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to go for an investigation into recent Senate elections. “PTI’s Ch Sawar received votes from the PML-N as well and Nawaz should get it probed,” he emphasised.

Fawad said that Ch Sarwar’s votes and the votes he received from others were quite obvious. “There is a need to know on the whose agenda, Sirajul Haq is working at this juncture, as the tone and tenor of Nawaz and Sirajul Haq appear to be similar,” he went on to charge. He wondered by issuing controversial statements, whom the JI chief wanted to malign.