Opposition members in KP Assembly call off protest after assurance

PESHAWAR: The opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly called off the protest after holding successful negotiations with the government team here on Thursday.

The joint opposition have been staging a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House for the last three days to protest against the government for not providing them development funds. The opposition members also wanted to lodge protest over the death of seven Covid-19 patients in Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) due to shortage of oxygen.

However, the opposition members called off the strike after assurance by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to redress their grievances. The government team comprising Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan, Minister for Local governments Akbar Ayub and Minister for Labour and Culture Shaukat Yousafzai held talks with the protesting opposition members.

The Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak announced the decision in the presence of other opposition MPAs, including Neghat Orakzai of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Mehmood Ahmad Khan Bhittani of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) and others.

Babak said they discussed the points including release of funds, executing uplift schemes in the opposition constituencies and treating the opposition members equally as public representatives.

He said the government team had sought 10 days for implementation on the pints and the opposition members hoped the promise made would be honoured. He said the Members National Assembly (MNAs) should stop interference in the MPAs constituencies and fulfill their responsibilities at the centre.

Speaking on the occasion, Shaukat Yousufzai said the opposition demands were genuine and the government would not do any discrimination with the members as they were elected public representatives and development of their constituencies was equally important for the government.

He said the people of the whole province had a right over the government schemes and development of their areas was the government’s responsibility. He said the government had recognised their protest and held talks with the protesting law makers to resolve their issues as per the province tradition.