CHARSADDA: Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Friday said Pakhtun leadership should be taken into confidence before making any policy about Afghanistan as it affected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Addressing a public gathering in Tangi tehsil here, he said the government should seek input from the Pakhtun leadership as coming up with a policy lacking their suggestions created problems later on.

Commenting on the fresh increase in the power tariff, Aftab Sherpao demanded of the government to conduct an audit of the agreements with the independent power producers as he believed the deals were mainly investor-friendly. He maintained the government should address the issue of line losses to give relief to consumers.

Advising the people, particularly youth to think about the country’s future before casting votes, he said the ones, who had raised hollow slogans and made empty pledges, left the country in dire financial straits due to their incompetence and lack of vision.

About the fresh delimitations, the QWP leader said ideally this exercise should be conducted a year before the general elections so candidates had enough time to reach out to the electorate.

He maintained some political parties had reservations about the fresh delimitations as candidates would have little time to run their election campaigns.

Though the Election Commission of Pakistan has announced holding elections in January next year, the caretaker government is yet to create an environment conducive to conduct polls, he said, adding law and order was also deteriorating hampering the efforts by the candidates to run their election campaigns.

RALLY: Jamaat-i-Islami on Friday staged a protest rally against growing incidents of street crimes, lawlessness, drug smuggling and corruption in Charsadda, and set 10-day deadline to the district administration to control the prevailing situation or the party would stage sit-ins outside the offices of the district police officer and the deputy commissioner.

The protesters after passing through the Charsadda Bazaar roads reached the Farooqi-i-Azam Chowk, where they chanted slogans against the district administration.

Addressing the rally, JI district chief Shah Hussain Advocate, general secretary Saifullah Durrani, deputy general secretary Haroon Khan and JI youth wing president Fawad Ahmed alleged open sale of ice drug, robberies, mobile phone snatching and other street crimes were on the rise in the district.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023