The Corridor Front, a group of various political parties, civil society organisations, has asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to tender resignation as he had badly failed to achieve a single scheme in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor during his participation in the Joint Co-ordination Council (JCC) meeting in Beijing.
Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Corridor Front convenor, Dr Said Alam Mehsud said the JCC meeting at Beijing was extremely important and the people of KP expected the CM to plead their case properly and achieve the due share in the multibillion mega project, but failed to come up to expectations.
Flanked by leaders of various political parties, CSOs including Farid Toofan of Awami National Party-Wali, Farzana Zain of KP Olasi Tehreek, Yousuf Anwar of Mazdoor Kisan Party, Zubair Anjum of Jamiat Ulema Islam-Nazriati, Engineer Haider Zaman of Awami Workers Party, Rahim Shah Advocate of Fata Lawyer Forum, Liaquat Yousufzai of Kasht Kar Co-ordination Council, Dr Mesud also rejected the demand for another all parties conference on the issue of CPEC.
He said the CM had failed to raise even the resolutions adopted by the KP Assembly for due share in nine sectors including motorways, power, fibre optic cable, railways, new plan for power generation, replacement of electric system, LNG, trade centres, industrial zones, oil and gas pipelines and entire projects went to rest of provinces.
Dr Mehsud said it was astonishing that the CM Pervez Khattak was raising tall claims to achieve rights of the province but he did not bother to plead case of his province in the light of resolutions of KP Assembly.
The actual western route of CPEC, he said, was from Kashghar via Khanjrab, Gilgit, Besham, Shangla, Khwazakhela, Mingora, Dargai, Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar, Kohat, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob, Quetta, Mastung, Qalat, Khushab and Panjgoor to Gwadar. However, the route was totally changed and of all schemes KP was given a short piece of road from Dera Ismail Khan to Zhob and its estimated cost was Rs8 billion only, saying it was next to nil but Pervez Khattak claimed it as his big achievement.
Mehsud asked members of KP Assembly to hold the CM accountable and reject the decisions taken by the JCC in Beijing. He said the only forum wherein the issue could be raised was council of common interests (CCI) but for the purpose the CM's resignation was a must so that anyone else could fight for rights of the province.
The ANP-Wali provincial leader Farid Toofan claimed that CM Pervez Khattak was hand in glove with federal government to bargain over the rights of KP province, especially with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar. He said the Corridor Front had earlier decided to hold sit-in outside Chinese Embassy but the protest would now be held outside the CM House and schedule would be announced soon by supreme council of the CF.