PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Irrigation and Labour, Shah Farman, has announced to convene the All Parties Conference (APC) today (Tuesday) to discuss the reservations of the opposition parties about the May 30 local government election. Speaking at a press conference at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday, he said the government had invited all parties to the APC that would be chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. He added that the government would accept whatever decision was taken by the political parties in the APC. “We will accept if the APC demanded re-election. We will hold investigation if the parties asked for it but will not resign because we, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, is the victim of rigging,” he said. Shah Farman, who also holds portfolio of Public Health Engineering, held The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) responsible for the mismanagement and irregularities and said they were holding probe into it and ready to arrange re-election under supervision of the army. The minister said that his party had demanded resignation from the federal government, but it didn’t resign. “We will not resign,” he said, recalling that tripartite opposition alliance, Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), had declared the last general election as unfair but had not demanded resignation of the federal government. He said there were rigging allegations against the federal government too, so it should also resign. Shah Farman said that if a party didn’t participate in the APC, it would mean it was satisfied with election results. About the shutdown strike of opposition parties, he said that protest was the right of all political parties, but it should be peaceful. He termed the May 30 elections as major polls and said his party was the worst sufferer of rigging.
