Govt urged to link Malakand, Mohmand with CPEC

KHAR: An all-parties conference (APC) convened by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Sunday announced to launch a joint movement to get the Malakand division and Mohmand tribal district included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The APC was held at the residence of Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Sirajuddin Khan. The politicians belonging to Bajaur, Mohmand, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir attended the APC. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not attend it. Former governor Shaukatullah Khan, Member National Assembly Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MPA Inayatullah Khan, Syed Akhunzada Chattan, Badshah Advocate, Maulana Abdul Rasheed, JI’s Haroon Rasheed, Maulana Waheed Gul, Mian Sultan Yousaf Bacha of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Maulana Arif Haqqani of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Hussain Shah Yousafzai of Awami National Party and others were present.

They also threatened to block the Chakdarra Motorway if their demands were not accepted. The speakers said that the Malakand division and Mohmand district were rich in mineral resources, but the rulers had adopted a discriminatory attitude towards its residents. They lamented that the Dir-Chitral-Bajaur road project had been dropped from the Public Sector Development Programme and this step has caused resentment among the local people. These areas, they said, were already far behind from the rest of the country in terms of development, therefore this step would create alienation among the local population. They demanded that Bajaur, Mohmand, Chitral and Dir should be linked with the CPEC project, which was a game-changer and would help bring prosperity to these areas. The participants in the APC asked the government to honour the pledges made with the people of the merged district at the time of the merger. The government, they said, had pledged to provide Rs100 billion to the merged districts every year for 10 years, but the pledge was not honoured. The APC demanded that the merged district should be expected from taxes till 2023 to give relief to the local people.