Mini-budget to add to people’s woes, says QWP leader

CHARSADDA: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) leader and former senior minister Sikandar Sherpao said on Thursday that the upcoming mini-budget would add to the financial problems of the people.

He was addressing a public gathering in Shabqadar tehsil in the Charsadda district, where Awami National Party local leader Iftikhar Khan announced joining the QWP along with his family and supporters. Sikandar Sherpao welcomed the new entrants to the party-fold and said that the people had become disenchanted with the government due to its flawed policies.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had failed to provide relief to the people, who were faced with a host of problems. The QWP leader added that though the government raised the prices of life-saving drugs, electricity, gas and hiked taxes, it could not improve the economic condition of the country. “The rulers even borrowed money from Saudi Arabia and China, but the economy is still in a bad shape,” he remarked.

Coming down hard on the provincial government for failing to complete the Bus Rapid Transit project, the QWP leader said that those setting March 23 deadline for its inauguration should remember that over one year had passed, but it could not be completed. He said dust and gridlocks had made life miserable for the residents of Peshawar.

Sikandar Sherpao said that those claiming to create 10 million jobs and construct five million houses had compounded the problems of the masses. The PTI rulers raised the slogan of change to deceive the people in their bid to reach the corridors of power, he added. Upholding merit, ensuring transparency and fighting corruption were political gimmicks to hoodwink the people, he said, adding, carving out one constituency from the frontier regions was illogical and beyond comprehension. He said the government was yet to extend policing and judiciary to the merged districts which had created unrest among the local people.

“Regular courts have not been set up in the merged districts that speak volumes about the sincerity of the rulers,” he said, questioning how justice could be dispensed in the absence of co urts.