PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Saturday expressed his concern over the prolonged loadshedding of natural gas and power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and described it as a sheer injustice with people of the province which had been producing more gas and electricity than its consumption.

He was speaking at a press conference at his party’s secretariat where he launched membership drive for the intra-party elections in the province. He said that his party was making efforts to unite the Pakhtun nationalists in a bid to solve problems being faced by the people.

Mr Sherpao criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for its incompetence to address the challenges facing the country. He expressed his concern over the non-serious attitude of the parliamentary committee formed to probe into the allegations of rigging in the 2018 general election. He said that the committee members could not even finalise the terms of reference to carry out its task.

“Even the role of opposition parties is very discouraging in this regard,” he maintained.

The QWP leader said that the country’s economy was in a bad shape though the government had received financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and China. “The government should share with the parliament the conditions attached to the Saudi and Chinese financial assistance,” he said.

He urged the government to have working relations with the opposition to carry out legislation. However, he said that the government had not yet formed the standing committees of the National Assembly for the purpose.

He rejected the increase in the prices of medicines and said it would create problems for the downtrodden segments of the society and limit their access to health facilities.

Mr Sherpao cautioned that the situation in Afghanistan could lead to a civil war if the Afghan government was not included in the parleys.

He said that Afghanistan should be included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. He said that Islamabad should take steps to remove the trust deficit and jack up trade volume between the two countries.

The QWP leader said that the visa regime should also be relaxed and the Afghans provided with medical treatment facilities.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2019