Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former Speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser is widely known as an astute politician and a skilled legal mind. That his conduct is guided by deep ethics is also a fact.

His recent remarks, however, have evoked an unfortunate controversy insofar as the relationship between the federal and KPK governments is concerned after he advised his party’s chief minister in KPK Ali Amin Gandapur to snap all ties with the federal government as the Centre, according to him, will never accept any of the chief minister’s demands.

According to Mr Qaiser, “This is my advice to the KP chief minister that he should end all contacts with the federation as it [the federal government] will not accept any of his demands. They have not appointed a single officer on your [the CM’s] demand and neither there has been any progress on the issue of the payment of the arrears to the province.” I still do not believe that Mr Qaiser can offer such an advice that “it’s the time of resistance, not reconciliation”.

Hasn’t the former Speaker National Assembly gone too far by asking the KPK CM to cut his province’s ties with the federation or the Centre? Doesn’t he know that KPK is very much part of the federation and shall remain so forever? Are the reasons that he has cited plausible enough for the KPK or its chief minister to sever ties with the federation? It increasingly appears that this senior leader of PTI is contributing, unknowingly or unknowingly, to some plan aimed at preparing ground for the imposition of governor’s rule on the province.

Having said that, I would request the federal government to look into the grievances of this province and help resolve them in order to minimize the sense of deprivation among its people. In my view, the federal government must reach out to the KPK government with a view to initiating a dialogue aimed at seeking the resolution of the issues being raised by the provincial government.

Inamur Rahman (Peshawar)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024