A partial strike was observed on Monday in several cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protest against the alleged rigging in the local government elections held last month in the province. The call for the shutter-down strike was given by a tripartite opposition alliance. However, business activities in all major cities, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, and Nowshera, remained normal most of the day although some shops remained closed for sometime early in the morning.
Incidents of scuffles between activists of opposition parties and traders were also reported in Peshawar when the former forcibly tried to get shops closed. An eye-witness told this scribe that workers belonging to the tripartite opposition alliance who were protesting on Peshawar's Ashraf Road also manhandling some shopkeepers. Some protesters also threw the goods out from a shop and used coercive measures for getting shops closed, he added.
The tripartite opposition alliance, comprising Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), has decided to observe a strike in the province following failure of its first round of talks with PTI-led KP government. The opposition parties have also demanded that the PTI-led provincial government should quit over alleged rigging in the local government elections.
A multi-party conference held on Tuesday under the aegis of PTI-led provincial government had set up a committee to negotiate with the opposition alliance. However, the opposition parties' alliance had refused to take back its call of strike observed partially in the province. Deploring over forcible closure of shops and markets by activists of opposition parties, KP Minister for Information Mushtaq Ghani has once again invited the opposition parties for talks over the issue of alleged rigging in the local government polls.
Later, talking to media persons, ANP's central general secretary and head of the opposition's alliance, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, accused the provincial government of using police against traders and shopkeepers. He also accused the police of harassing shopkeepers at the behest of provincial government.
The tripartite opposition alliance had rejected the proposals which were made during an all parties conference (APC) convened by KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. The KP chief minister had suggested formation of a judicial commission to probe into the alleged rigging in the local government polls. The APC was, however, boycotted by the tripartite opposition alliance.
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