Khattak leads protest against federal govt in Islamabad today

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak will lead the protest being staged by the provincial parliamentary leaders of all the political parties outside the Parliament House today against the federal government for denying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s rights.
The protest march would start from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad and culminate at the Parliament House where the protest sit-in would be staged to press the federal government for acceptance of the demands of the province.
Provincial ministers Mushtaq Ghani, the Minister for Information, and Muzaffar Said, the Minister for Finance, told a hurriedly called news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday that the decision to stage the protest in Islamabad was taken in a meeting of parliamentary parties’ leaders chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Mushtaq Ghani recalled that the parliamentary parties’ leaders have been expressing reservations over the discriminatory policies of the federal government towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.He said the participants of the meeting held on Monday decided to first stage a demonstration outside the Parliament House and draw a future line of action to win provincial rights if their demands were not met.
“This war-affected province is facing acute problems but the federal government since the day one has meted out step-motherly treatment to it. Our entire infrastructure has been ruined. Being a frontline province in the war against terrorism, the federal government should have concentrated on resolving its problems and sharing its woes but instead it was left in the lurch,” Mushtaq Ghani argued.
“The province accommodated millions of Afghan refugees and later hosted the internally displaced persons (IDPs) after the launching of the military operation Zarb-e-Azb. We have been demanding our rights over power generation. Our people are being subjected to 18 to 20 hours loadshedding despite the fact that the province is generating surplus electricity,” he stressed.
He added that the route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was diverted towards Punjab ignoring the underdeveloped parts of KP.The minister said: “We believe in protecting the national interest. We never adopted the policy to stop electricity supply to other provinces, though Punjab stops supply of wheat whenever it wants. We are also part of Pakistan and it can only be strengthened when all the federating units are stable.”
Mushtaq Ghani said that the three smaller provinces - Sindh, Balochistan and KP - were annoyed as the federal government was focusing on the development of Punjab only.The minister demanded restoration of the previous route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an end to loadshedding and formation of a joint committee comprising Peshawar Electric Supply Company and parliamentary leaders of the political parties to pinpoint electricity theft in the province and other related problems.
Quoting the chief minister, Mushtaq Ghani said the provincial government would withdraw security from Wapda installations and would not allow provision of electricity transformers if the injustice with it was not stopped.
He asked the federal government to authorise the KP government to sign agreements with international companies to build dams and produce electricity.The minister asked other political parties to join the protest instead of making tall claims.
Finance Minister Muzaffar Said stated that the federal government owed Rs653 billion to KP under the head of its share from net hydel-generation profits.He said the federal government was not giving funds to KP under the Public Sector Development Programme.
He demanded chairmanship of the Planning Commission on rotation basis to end the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces. This province, he said, had been hosting the Afghan refugees and IDPs since long but the federal government was not taking these problems seriously.
The minister said the deteriorating law and order in Fata would directly affect KP. He added that the federal government was not allowing KP to exercise the right after the 18th Amendment to sign agreements with other countries to generate electricity.
He added that long hours of loadshedding had badly affected life and business in KP. “The provincial government has been compelled to resort to protests,” he complained.Replying to a question, Mushtaq Ghani said KP was not making the China Pakistan Economic Corridor controversial, but the federal government did so by changing its route. “We will force the government to change its decision,” he said. He told a questioner that the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had always conspired to destabilise Pakistan.The minister said the protest was not linked to the PTI or the JI as all the political parties had been asked to join it to secure the rights for the province.