ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday blasted the federal government for not inviting Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur to the much-trumpeted Special Investment Facilitation Council meeting to be held on May 25.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has summoned a meeting of SIFC on May 25 (Saturday), but KP CM was singled out without any reason as chief ministers of the remaining three provinces have already been invited to attend the meeting.

The upcoming session will be attended by the top officials, including deputy prime minister-cum-foreign minister Senator Ishaq Dar, ministers for information, finance, defence, planning and development, commerce, law and justice, water resources, and provincial chief secretaries.

Reacting to the development, the adviser to the KP chief minister Muhammad Ali Saif censured the federal government, saying those who made it to the power corridors through the clutches of Forms 47, have started giving the most important province a step-motherly treatment just because the people of the province voted for PTI.

“Fake ‘Form 47’ government is pushing the country towards provincialism. We wouldn’t accept any decision regarding the fate of our province possessing natural resources in the absence of the chief minister. The KP government strongly condemns this biased step,” he added.

Adviser to KP CM on Finance Muzzammil Aslam slammed the federal government’s decision for not inviting the KP chief minister to the SIFC apex committee’s session bearing malice and an insult of the public mandate.

Aslam claimed that the PM Office was involved in neglecting the KP province and demanded the Centre to review the decision. He blamed the forum for failing to bring reasonable investments to the country in one and a half year.

He clarified that the province was not involved in the confrontation, except for demanding its dues from the federal government.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024