Federal govt urged to take KP, Fata’s interests into consideration

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly here Friday unanimously passed a resolution asking the federal government to look into the problems and sufferings of KP and its adjacent tribal areas while signing investment agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during the visit of the President of China to Pakistan.
Moved by the parliamentary leader of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Sikandar Sherpao, the resolution reads, “The provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa welcomes the Chinese President Xi Jinping on his visit to Pakistan accompanied by a high powered delegation. During his visit, it is expected that a number of important agreements and MoUs will be signed between the two countries.”
It said the assembly believed that the visit, apart from further strengthening the bond of longstanding friendship between both the neighbours, would pave the way for ensuring greater Chinese investment in Pakistan.
“This assembly urges the federal government that while signing the investment agreements and MoUs during the same visit, the problems and miseries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its adjoining tribal belt must not be overlooked and this region’s vulnerability to extremism, terrorism and backwardness should be highlighted so as to secure more investment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata,” the resolution added.
Through the resolution, the provincial assembly demanded that the western route for China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor (CPEC) should be included in the harvest plans relating to CPEC. Speaking on the resolution, Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party said the federal government had ignored the interests of KP and it was paying no heed to the resolutions adopted by the provincial assembly.
He said if the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project was not executed as per the original plan, the deprivation of KP and Balochistan would further increase, which would be damaging for the federation.
Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman also supported the resolution and said the House was united in the matter of the rights of the province.He said the federal government’s attitude towards the province was not cooperative and had caused uncertainty among its residents.
Munawar Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) hoped that the federal government would consider the interests of KP while finalising the economic corridor route project.
Speaker Asad Qaiser said a meeting of all the parliamentary leaders in the provincial assembly had been convened on April 21 to discuss all the matters, including the resolutions adopted by the assembly, the economic corridor and electricity loadshedding.
He asked the parliamentary leaders to attend the meeting.The House adopted another resolution presented by Mahmood Jan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf demanding service structure for the planning and development officers in government departments.
The resolution said there was no service structure for the planning and development officers in different departments and they were deprived of promotion opportunities.Though the session started two hours behind schedule, the Speaker adjourned the assembly proceedings after adopting the resolution.
Interestingly, some members from the treasury benches including minister Shah Farman pointed out the lack of quorum.The dissident PTI MPA Javed Nasim was the first to point out the lack of quorum. He was followed by Shah Farman.Though the agenda items included two bills and call attention notices, the movers were not present in the House at the time. The assembly will now meet on Monday at 2pm.