PESHAWAR: Calling for the holding of the general election as soon as possible, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said that an enabling environment should be created so that the political parties could reach out to the voters.
Addressing a well-attended workers convention at the residence of Arshad Khan Agra in Charsadda, he said that level playing field should be provided to all the political parties and whoever won should be allowed to form the government.
Aftab Sherpao said uncertainty prevailed in the country after the president wrote a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan, suggesting the election date. “The president’s letter has added to the confusion surrounding the election,” he remarked.
Commenting on the fresh wave of terrorism particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the QWP leader said the government should take steps to provide a level playing field and an enabling environment to all the political parties so that they would reach out to the electorate.
He also criticized the caretaker KP government for frequently making changes in the cabinet and reshuffling the bureaucracy. Aftab Sherpao said that changes were also being made in the federal caretaker cabinet.
“Our party had suggested at the time of making the 18th Amendment to do away with the caretaker setup,” adding that under the original 1973 Constitution, there was no concept of installing the caretaker setup. He said that the ECP should be strengthened to conduct the polls.
He said that whichever political party formed the next government after the general election should amend the constitution and abolish the role of the caretakers in future. He cited the example of India, Bangladesh and other regional countries, where there was no role of the caretakers.
He said that KP was not being given its due rights. He added that rising inflation had made life difficult for the people. He demanded that the agreements with the independent power producers should be reviewed and an audit should be conducted into their affairs. He maintained that the government should address the issue of the line losses to give relief to the paying consumers instead of putting more burdens on them.
Aftab Sherpao said the people had lost faith in the political setup due to the prevailing uncertainty and inflation. He said the government was mulling raising the prices of the petroleum products, which would bring a new wave of inflation.
He believed the outgoing chief justice Supreme Court sided with a certain political party and formed benches of his own liking. He maintained that all state institutions should work within the ambit of the constitution.
The QWP leader said that KP’s population was undercounted in the last digital census and this would hurt the interest of the province in terms of allocation in the federal divisible pool and the National Finance Commission award.
He held the previous PTI government is responsible for the crises facing the country at present. He said that the people were bearing the brunt of the wrong decisions made by Imran Khan’s government.
He said the merged districts were also facing the shortage of funds and the promises made with the local people largely remained unfulfilled.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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